Tuesday Highlands Soccer, Golf Results

Bluebirds Drop Tight One to Rivals

PHOTO: Allen Ramsey, DWCPhoto.com. Highlands senior Nick Gish boots the ball ahead in a recent game.

For the first time in school history, the Highlands Bluebirds soccer team stepped onto the field of the rival Covington Catholic Colonels under the new lights.

What did not change is the intense play between two solid teams that came down to one extra flash. In this one, that flash went in favor of the host Colonels (7-2-3) in a 1-0 9th Region victory. CovCath has won the region the past two years winning the state championship in 2015 and finishing state runner-up last year. Highlands is 3-2 in region play.

"It's one loss. We have four losses and this would be the second one that we just got beat in soccer," said Chad Niedert, Highlands Head Coach. "I think in two of our four (losses), we just did not come to play. We came to play (Tuesday). That's why you play the games. If it was played on stats alone, we wouldn't get out here and play. Our guys battled. I'm not going to say whether we were the better team or not necessarily. I think that's a game could have gone 1-0 our way as well. If we we see them again, we're confident we could get them or we at least know we were in this game. If we see them again, it's in a much more important game. I hope the guys leave here with their heads held high because they did work hard, we just didn't get the result."

Both teams played great defense limiting shot opportunities. CovCath had 10 shots with five on goal compared to nine shots for Highlands (7-4) with two on goal. The Colonels had a shot go off the post in the first half.

The game's lone goal came just five minutes, 40 seconds into the second half. Colonel senior Thomas Bradley took a pass up-field and hit it to his left for the goal.

"It's hard to say too much to do better because we obviously don't have a perfect game," Niedert said. "It's difficult to try to control fortune. I'm not going to say they didn't create part of that. There are elements to that goal that they scored. We had very similar opportunities then the ball just doesn't end up in the same spot for us."

Highlands actually scored in the first couple minutes of the game. But an offsides call nullified the goal.

Junior goalkeeper Will Burnham had three saves before coming out of the game in the second half and sophomore Nick Fischer had one for the Bluebirds. Colonel senior goalkeeper Thomas Cody had two saves.

Highlands had some corner kicks late in the game. But the Bluebirds could not put the game-tying goal across.

Highlands did win the freshman and junior varsity games against the Colonels. They also came by 1-0 scores.

The Bluebirds play host to South Oldham on Thursday. Game time is 8 p.m.

Golf, Boys:
Highlands 181, Newport Central Catholic 191:

The Bluebirds took down the Thoroughbreds on Senior Day at A.J. Jolly Golf Course. Senior Aaron Verst tied for the low round of 43 for Highlands.

Highlands saw its four scorers shoot in the 40s. Junior Steven Grimme shot a 44 and senior Jackson Recht shot a 46 with eighth grader Jack Schneider firing a 48. Isaiah Lampkin followed with a 52 for Highlands and Brady Walz shot a 56.

The Bluebirds travel to Simon Kenton for a dual match Thursday. It tees off at 3:45 p.m. at Kenton County Golf Course.