Lake goalkeeper Mitchell Maguire, who scored the game-winning goal and got the clinching stop on the ensuing attempt in the penalty kick phase, turns to celebrate his team’s victory over Port Clinton in Thursday’s district final. (Nicholas Huenefeld | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
MILLBURY — The Lake boys soccer team is headed to regionals for just the second time in program history.
After neither team could score through 80 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime, Lake and Port Clinton were tied through the first eight penalty kick attempts at the north side goal of Lake Community Stadium.
Junior goalkeeper Mitchell Maguire then proceeded to guide the Flyers to a thrilling finish, scoring the game-winning goal and adding the clinching stop to give his team a 6-5 win in penalty kicks in a Division IV district final.
“It’s unreal,” Maguire said. “I wouldn’t be able to do it without God, my family, my teammates and my friends supporting me. We weren’t supposed to be here. We lost a few key players on our team, but we made our way through, battled and got a W.”
With the 1-0 victory, Lake (15-2-2) advances to the regional semifinal round against Liberty-Benton on Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. inside Frost-Kalnow Stadium in Tiffin.
It is the program’s first district title since 2008, and they coincidentally avenged a 3-0 loss to Port Clinton in a 2012 district final, which was the last time Lake made the final round of district play.
“It’s been a long time,” Lake head coach Brian Reed said. “I’m glad that this group came together. The league didn’t turn out the way we wanted to, but to show up in the tournament and play well is great.”
The win also provided extra satisfaction for Lake as they have overcome the loss of a pair of starters in Xavier Lautzenheiser and Preston Snyder due to injury late in the season, which forced several adjustments.
“Our coaches played a very big part in that,” Maguire said. “They constantly encouraged us and got us to the point where we are able to not (get overwhelmed with) how big of a game we’re playing, to be able to surpass that and play to the level we can play.”
The Flyers managed to get the victory despite missing three of their first four penalty kick attempts as Maguire saved Port Clinton’s second and fourth attempts after forcing a high shot on their first attempt.
Travis Merrill’s goal on Lake’s second attempt aided Maguire in providing a 1-1 tie through the first four rounds.
Jonathan Specht, Mason Sneed, Delfino Garcia and Evan Barta proceeded to make Lake’s next four attempts, and Port Clinton matched it, including a tally from their goalkeeper, Connor Earnest.
“We needed every single part of our team today,” Lake senior Greyson Reed said. “Everyone showed up. We’ve been wanting this for a while. We have a big senior class. We were close every year, and we finally got it. Every person played a key part.”
Those four consecutive makes set up Maguire’s heroics, which came two years after Lake’s season ended on the same field in a penalty kick shootout to Delta in a Division II district semifinal.
“We’re speechless,” Reed said. “We were in the same situation my sophomore year, and we were on the other side. We know how it feels. To win this is a very good feeling.”
In the game’s first 40 minutes, Lake out-shot Port Clinton 8-4, including a 4-2 advantage in on-frame looks.
Kolton Nowicki’s shot toward the top left corner with 25:45 left was saved by Earnest, who also made back-to-back stops on headers from Merrill in the 19th and 24th minutes.
Port Clinton (10-8) had a shot go just wide with 7:55 left, and Maguire made a kick save with 3:27 to go as the teams were scoreless at the half.
“I thought we played okay,” Lake coach Brian Reed said. “I would have liked to have created more opportunities. We had a couple good looks from distance. We just couldn’t create the opportunities in the box that we wanted. Overall, we played hard and did a nice job.”
The Flyers managed to get another seven shots in the second half, including a pair on goal. Port Clinton had another near-goal in the game’s 57th minute, but the attempt hit the upper portion of the crossbar before going over.
Maguire saved two shots from Port Clinton in the first five minutes of the first overtime session.
Nowicki got off Lake’s first attempt with 7:30 left in the 15-minute session, but it was saved – as were back-to-back attempts from Merrill and Ethan Bradfield on corner kicks with just under two minutes left.
Lake then managed to hold off a mini-barrage from Port Clinton in the second 15-minute session.
Maguire saved the first shot with 10:21 left. The Redskins then had a wide open look with 9:47 left, but Casey Brand’s shot was wide left by a small distance.
Reed headed away a deep free kick with 8:22 left, and Port Clinton had two more off-frame shots in the next three minutes.
Maguire saved yet another shot with 1:55 left, and Lake was then whistled for a foul deep in Port Clinton territory 20 seconds later, but Brand’s shot was high.
The Redskins got off a wide shot with a few seconds left, as well.
In total, Lake out-shot Port Clinton 18-15, including an 8-7 advantage in shots on goal. Seven of those 15 attempts for the Redskins came in the second overtime session. Mitchell finished with seven saves.
