Hurricanes Battle to Penalty Kicks in State Playoffs

The Jasper County Hurricane Boys Soccer team battled in round one of the state playoffs as they hosted Temple High School last Friday.

Jasper went into round one seeded 8 of 32 teams, while Temple held down the 25 spot. Temple scored first against Jasper thanks to their offensive threat, Jalen Wirth. However, the Canes returned the message with a long shot from outside the 18-box from junior and team leader, Andrew Smith.

The score remained tied even after multiple attempts from the Canes to finish the goal, and total domination possessively by the Canes. They went into two, 10-minute overtimes. Temple came out quick in the first overtime with a quick goal from Wirth in the first two minutes.

Goalie Ricardo Sanchez-Hernandez answered back though with a long shot from halfway down the field to tie the game 2-2 in overtime. With the score still remaining tied, both teams headed into the dreaded penalty kick scenario where each team picks five players to kick a penalty kick (PK). The best of five wins the game, and if it is still tied after that, another round of PK’s follows.

The Canes wouldn’t see that second round of PK’s unfortunately, because Temple made 4/5, giving them the win over the Canes with a final score of 3-2 but not before PK’s were made by juniors Alex Bautista and Lane Lackey.

This was a tough loss for the Canes who had over 40 shots compared to Temple’s 5. Head Coach Ashley Clegg said, “While this certainly was a tough loss for us, we are going to use this as fuel to light our fire for next year. This is certainly a feeling none of us ever want to feel again, and we will work even harder to hopefully never feel it in the future.”

The Canes are coached by Ashley Clegg and Karen Hays who have led the boys to continued growth over the past six years, and foresee even more growth in the years to come. Both coaches and players can agree that they are excited for what the future holds for next year’s group, as well as the seasons to follow.