Mercer Soccer Comes Up Short in 12th Region Championship
Garrett Dean, right, won a head over Boyle County’s James Warinner, left, in the 12th Region Championship Saturday, Oct. 25.
The Mercer County soccer team was looking to get back to the state tournament for the first time since 2012 Saturday night, but they fell to the Boyle County Rebels 3-2.
The Titans struck first just eight minutes into the game on a goal by senior James Stinnett, assisted by Brandon Ballard.
Boyle County didn’t take long to respond, as Peyton Cocanougher scored less than two minutes later to tie things at one.
It appeared the Rebels had scored again a minute later but the goal was called off due to an offsides penalty, leaving the score tied.
The Rebels did score their second goal of the game with 18 minutes remaining in the half as there was a miscommunication between the Mercer County defense and goalkeeper Zack Phillips, which led to an easy goal by Jonathan Carman.
Mercer County controlled the tempo the rest of the first half but their shots weren’t falling.
The Titans’ comeback efforts took a big blow toward the end of the first half as their second leading scorer, Stinnett, had to leave the game with concussion-like symptoms after being hit in the head.
It looked like the Titans were going to tie things up just three minutes into the second half, but Cody Shackelford’s shot deflected off the top-crossbar.
Boyle County took advantage of their next opportunity, taking a 3-1 lead nine minutes into the second half as their leading scorer, Kyle Settle, scored his 34th goal of the season.
The Titans responded quickly as senior Matthew Raskin scored his team leading 14th goal just a minute later to make the score 3-2 in favor of the Rebels.
Check out this weeks edition of the Harrodsburg Herald for the rest of the story.
