The
Highlands Bluebirds boys soccer team has put together some good soccer during
this impressive tournament run.
The
Bluebirds (17-7-1) may need to play their greatest game of the year to advance
to the state semifinals for just the second time in school history. Highlands faces
the top-ranked Lexington Paul Dunbar Bulldogs (23-1-2) at Noon on Saturday at
Lexington Henry Clay in the state quarterfinals.
The
Highlands Bluebirds and Newport Central Catholic Thoroughbreds soccer teams got
off 11 shots a piece. But the Bluebirds connected on two of them in a 2-0 victory
on Saturday at Tower Park.
The
Bluebirds snapped a three-game winless streak to move to 7-6-2 overall and
2-4-2 since starting the year 5-2. They also moved to 11-0-2 against NewCath
since 2004.
“It does not matter if we’re having a good year, an off
year or if they’re having a good year or off year, this is always a fantastic
game,” said Matthew Winkler,
Highlands head coach. “(NewCath head
coach) Mike (McDonald) and I get along really well so it’s fun to bring the
squads together and see where we are. After the last couple weeks, it’s really nice
to have a decent win. We’ll see where we can go from there.”
NewCath
dropped to 2-6-4. The Thoroughbreds once again played good defense but could
not manufacture goals. They’ve been outscored 20-14 this year.
“We made big mistakes in the back,” McDonald said. “When
we do that, we give up goals. That’s what it came down to (Saturday). Once we
get everybody on the same page playing as a team, we’ll be good. We have talent
all over the field. We just have to put it together.”
Both
goalkeepers made big saves with a lot of help defensively. Highlands goalkeeper
Nick Breslin made 11 saves and NewCath counterpart Nathan Grosser made nine. Highlands
defenders like Jimmy Penrod, Alex Shepherd and Franklin Graves constantly
booted balls away from the goal.
