By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
HAMMOND – Wednesday’s Division III boys soccer state championship at Strawberry Stadium felt like a lot of things.
Cold, for one thing. Bitter, bone-chilling, someone-make-it-stop cold. The thermometer said 35 degrees.
The thermometer lied.
It felt like the stiff breeze was going to be a factor for both the wild chill and the game and, as it turned it, it was.
It felt like what this is what championship games are supposed to be – a battle between the top two seeds in the bracket with No. 1 seed Loyola taking on No. 2 seed University Lab (Baton Rouge).
And almost from the beginning, it felt like this was going to be a 1-0 game. Someone was going to get a break when it was least expected, capitalize and then hold on.
That’s exactly what happened.
In the 64th minute, University got a free kick from near the corner, and kept the ball on the ground where junior Cie Parker was able to knock a deflection into the goal for the game’s only score.
Loyola goalkeeper Hudson Moore had no chance.
Ball game. (Not really, but it might as well have been.)
“We knew it was going to be a tough thing for us because they are big and physical,” Loyola coach Wes Kyle said. “We are skilled and small. I thought we matched up well with them. But it just didn’t work out for us.”
Moore made a couple of great saves in the final 10 minutes to give the Flyers a puncher’s chance as the clock wound down, but Loyola could never generate enough offense to get a realistic chance to send it into overtime.
“That’s part of having a really young team,” Kyle said. “Their whole team is juniors and seniors and they weren’t going to be denied. When we cleared the ball, they were the first ones to it and that’s how it played out.”
It wasn’t exactly a tale of two halves, but the Flyers had much more possession time in the first half than in the second. You could call the first half a draw, but there’s no doubt University was more dominant in the second half, when the Cubs had the wind advantage.
“I thought we showed a lot of resilience with the little things,” Kyle said. “There were times in the first half when we were playing right through them and connecting passes. We were on a roll there for a little while. But we just couldn’t get it together and get it in the back of the net.”
The Flyers’ only senior starters were Moore and forward Mark Henry (the other senior, Joe Scott, has been injured), but Kyle didn’t think inexperience was much of a factor.
“I don’t think the game was too big for us because they’ve been in big games before, but a lot of our younger players have some growing to do,” Kyle said. “A lot of them are sophomores and even two or three freshmen sometimes. We had 14- and 15-year-olds going against 17- and 18-year-olds. It’s just a little bit different.”
It was Loyola’s first appearance in the state finals since 2019, when the Flyers lost to University in overtime.
Only a couple of years ago the Flyer program had a hard time getting enough players to even fill out a full roster.
“It was a great season,” Kyle said. “We had a fantastic run in January and great district and playoff run. It’s sad that it came to an end for these seniors. They’ve worked their tails off since June. You can’t ask for anything more.”
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com