WEST CARROLTON – Sam Spirk’s goal with 6:20 to play in overtime lifted Wilmington to a 2-1 win over Roger Bacon Tuesday in a Division II sectional championship match at West Carrollton High School.
The Hurricane advances to the district title game 7 p.m. Saturday at Waynesville High School against No. 1 seed Tippecanoe.
“Our boys played their hearts out,” WHS head coach Imad El-Macharaffie said. “We’re subbing one player out all night long and those guys gave it all they’ve got. It was pretty even the way we played. Our boys were rewarded for all their hard work.”
Tippecanoe was ranked No. 3 in the final Division II Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association state poll. Tipp defeated Chaminade-Julienne 1-0 on Tuesday. El-Macharaffie said Bacon was a strong team but expects Tippecanoe to be even better.
“The deeper you go into the tournament, the tougher the competition is going to be,” the WHS coach said. “Roger Bacon is a very good soccer team. We just beat a very good soccer team tonight. We were fortunate that their forwards could not capitalize on goal. This is the best team we’ve seen this year, switching the point of attack. We had to cram up the midfield to stop that them from doing that to us. “
This is the first district championship match for the WHS boys soccer program.
The Hurricane is 11-5-2.
Roger Bacon concludes its season with a 10-7-2 record.
Josh Vaughan was credited with the first goal of the game with 21:06 to play in the first half. Seth Gundlach served a corner kick that bounced around in front of the Roger Bacon goal before finding the back of the net to give WHS a 1-0 lead.
Ollie Boeres tied the match just over four minutes later with a goal for the Spartans.
Neither team was able to score the remainder of the first half and throughout the second half as the goalkeepers took over. Jake Vaughan played a strong match in goal for Wilmington.
In the 10 minute extra session, Spirk took a pass from Gundlach and chipped the Roger Bacon keeper for the game-winner. The goal was Spirk’s 37th of the season. Gundlach now has 26 assists for the year. Both marks are WHS boys soccer records.
