John Bruce, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
JACKSON — Typically, defenders don’t score, especially multiple times in one game.
CREDIT: Patrick Phillips/Glory Days Photography
However, Minford’s Charlie Neal is no typical defender.
Neal, a senior center back for the Falcons, scored twice in the first 10 minutes of the first half on restarts to give his team the scoring it desperately needed to return to the regional tournament for a second straight season — putting away a 3-2 victory over Northwest in a Division III district final.
“It’s never easy to win these things,” Minford coach Jacob Hackworth said. “Good, bad or ugly, we’ll take it. We’re onto the next one.”
After beating Northwest twice in the regular season by tight 2-1 scores, the Falcons (16-2-1) knew they had to come into the game with lots of energy to put the Mohawks on their heels. The combination of Neal and Myles Montgomery provided that early.
At the 33:11 mark of the opening half, Montgomery sent a perfect corner kick towards the back post, which Neal connected with to put the Falcons in front.
Amazingly, at the 29:59 mark of the first half, Minford’s Adam Crank launched a throw-in to the back post, where Neal leapt high above the defense to head into the side netting for a 2-0 lead.
“Anytime we can get the backs involved, that’s a great thing,” Hackworth said. “When I first took the job here, the [defenders] were kind of like, ‘Why are we doing these offensive drills?’ I want everyone to be able to play everywhere. When the ball comes to their feet, we want them to know what to do with it.”
The Falcons controlled the action throughout the first half with Crank, Ethan Cordle and Gavin Downey running the midfield, mixed in with outstanding defensive play from Neal, Luke Oakes, Dylan Brooks and Sam Tieman.
The offensive attack from the Falcons put 11 shots up in the first, but couldn’t add on due to outstanding goalkeeping from Northwest’s Logan Shephard, who made a splendid diving save halfway through the half.
Coming out of halftime, the Mohawks (13-6) started to bring the fight to the Falcons.
Jay Jenkins, Caleb Lewis and Gavin Lute-Defoe put pressure on Minford’s defense, eventually drawing a foul call about 30 yards away from the goal. At that point, Lewis stepped up and crushed a wicked right-footed shot into the back of the net with 34:10 remaining, cutting the lead to 2-1.
The Falcons quickly struck back at the 30:58 mark, when Troy Rhodes tapped in a pass from Gavin Downey to go ahead 3-1. The play was set up by Montgomery drawing multiple defenders and laying the ball off for a streaking Downey. Downey beat the keeper and passed to the waiting Rhodes in front of the goal.
Northwest wasn’t done yet, though. Jenkins crossed a ball into Lute-Defoe, who finished it with his right foot with 5:09 to play.
However, the deficit would be too much for the Mohawks to overcome as Minford’s defense locked in and helped complete the three-game sweep.
“The defense has been our strongpoint all year,” Hackworth said. “I know they’ll be disappointed when we break down field about giving up that second goal. We haven’t given up many run-of-play goals this year. But that’s credit to Northwest. They played with tremendous effort. I thought if we could just match or be close to their effort level, our ability and our technicalities would help us through.”
Lewis’ goal was the 26th of his junior season as the Mohawks only graduate three seniors from this year’s roster season. Shepherd had seven saves on the day for Northwest.
For Minford, goalkeeper Cole Borland had four saves on the day, while Neal’s two goals give him eight on the season. Rhodes’ goal was also his eighth of the season.
The win gives the Falcons a second consecutive district championship and gives them a third meeting with Southern Ohio Conference rival Wheelersburg in a Division III regional semifinal.
That matchup will take place at 6 p.m., Wednesday at Chillicothe’s Herrnstein Field.
“We’re excited for this group and we want to keep this going,” Hackworth said. “Congratulations to Wheelersburg and coach [Jon] Estep. We’re good friends and it’s hard to get to this level. But they’re a familiar foe. All the film and knowledge doesn’t matter. They know what we do and we know what they do. It’ll be another tough game, I’m sure.”
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