By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
BOLIVAR – If Thursday night was any indication, fans might have seen a preview of a potential Class 3 District 11 final between the Willard and Bolivar boys’ soccer teams.
After 100 minutes of fighting tooth and nail, Willard goalkeeper Turner Sevon came up with the game-winning save to give the Tigers a 1-0 (5-4 PKs) victory over the host Bolivar Liberators.
Willard’s first attempt in the extra session was blocked by Bolivar keeper Will vanHoornbeek, and Bolivar’s Nick Genovese made his attempt in the upper-right corner, even though Sevon got a glove on the shot, to put the Liberators up 1-0.
But, Sevon didn’t let that first series phase him.
“I knew we had it in us the whole time, and that I had the power to stop every single one of them,” Sevon said.
Willard’s Mikal Warner buried his shot in the lower-left corner to tie it 1-1; Alex Maldonado gave Bolivar a 2-1 advantage before Dyllon Schmehl made it all square (2-2) with a shot that just slipped past vanHoornbeek.
Sevon blocked Bolivar’s third attempt and the two teams traded scores before Sevon’s heroics.
“I honestly didn’t know that it was to the point that, if I saved that, we’d won,” Sevon said. “So, once I saw everybody running, I just yelled and ran, too.”
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Willard rebounded from a 4-3 loss to Nixa on Tuesday night to improve to 11-8, while Bolivar, which was coming off a 6-0 shutout of Marshfield, fell to 12-6.
“I felt like we came out a little bit flat,” Willard coach Tim Magee said. “I don’t know that we were mentally prepared for the fight Bolivar was going to give us. Every time we come to this field, it is an absolute brawl to the end.
“You have to give their kids a lot of credit because they play with so much heart and intensity, and I don’t know that we were able to match that for a lot of tonight.”
The Tigers controlled possession much of the first half with Riley Young keying the offensive attack.
“We were just trying to be patient, and we knew Bolivar was going to play great defense, because they always do, and we were just going to try to be patient and find some holes and see if we could put something in,” Magee said. “But their defense never broke down; their keeper was amazing, and so you have to give them credit for playing as well as they did and making us struggle.”
Coming out in the second half, the Tigers pelted shot after shot at vanHoornbeek, who turned back about five straight shots.
“Our defense played hard,” vanHoornbeek said. “They (Willard) have a good attack, they move it around, and I just kept telling myself, ‘You’ve got to be aggressive; just go after anything you can that’s in my box; don’t let it by.’ ”
And, he didn’t.
“We had several shots, but we just didn’t put them in, and guys have got to be calm in front of goals and put the ball in the back of the net when they have the opportunity,” Magee said.
Neither side’s defense would budge, as both offenses struggled to get a shot at the goal. Bolivar did threaten with about 1:15 left in the second half, when vanHoornbeek sent a goal kick near the Willard goal box, pulling out the keeper, but the Liberators were unable to capitalize – and the game went to overtime.
“Both teams just battled,” Bolivar coach Steve Fast said. “There were spurts from our team where we had some chances, but just couldn’t finish and couldn’t get it deep enough into the box. Willard just really pressed hard. It was a gutsy performance by both teams.”
Capped off by a big performance from Sevon.
“It’s a bad position to put any goalkeeper in, but he’s a senior and we knew that he would come through,” Magee said. “Whether or not he was able to stop as many as he did, we didn’t know, but we knew he would come through in one way or another.”
