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By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
SPRINGFIELD — After the Logan-Rogersville boys soccer team suffered yet another heartbreaking loss in last year’s district championship game — the fourth time the Wildcats finished as runner-up in the past five seasons — forward Sage Ballard made a promise.
“I’m not going to leave the school without winning districts,” he recalled telling his coach, Brett Wubbena. “We’re going to do it. We should have for the past four years. We’ve been so good.”
Now, finally, Ballard and the Wildcats can definitively say no team in their district is better.
The senior scored two goals — including the eventual game-winner — and twin brother Rylen Ballard added a key insurance marker as Logan-Rogersville secured the Class 2 District 5 championship with a 3-1 victory over Osage on Wednesday at the Cooper Family Soccer Plex.
It is the first district title in school history for the Wildcats, who advanced to the state quarterfinals and will host either Excelsior Springs or Marshall next Saturday for a berth in the Final Four. Those schools will play at 6 p.m. Thursday to determine the District 6 championship.
“Dude, it’s unbelievable,” Sage Ballard said. “I’ve wanted this all four years.”
Now he and his teammates finally have it, the latest accomplishment in a historic season that has seen Logan-Rogersville (19-4) rewrite the school record book. Wednesday’s game brought yet another record, as the 19th win eclipsed the previous single-season high of 18 set last year.
Yet this victory carried more weight than any of the ones that preceded it, as this team was finally able to bring home a first-place plaque after years of coming up just short.
Wubbena quietly collected the prize from a tournament official, then walked it across the pitch where his players were celebrating with Logan-Rogersville fans and soccer alumni.
“It means a lot,” said Wubbena, who founded the Wildcats program 13 years ago. “We’ve had some tough years, but we’ve had some really good kids. I was telling the ones that came back — the alumni that were here tonight — they kind of set the groundwork. They set the standards high. Got these kids playing. For them to come out on a night like this, it’s just awesome.”
If the alumni set the bar, Sage Ballard has raised it to never-before-seen level.
The 2020 all-state selection already holds Logan-Rogersville’s single-season and career scoring records and is averaging about two per game this year. Wednesday brought more of the same.
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“The kid has been a machine,” Wubbena said.
The first goal came in the 10th minute, as the senior weaved his way through the Osage defense and scored on his own rebound to give Logan-Rogersville an early 1-0 advantage.
Osage senior Ethan Ford found the equalizer four minutes later, sending a high arcing shot past Wildcats keeper Brady Goodson — the lone blemish on the sophomore’s otherwise stellar night.
The deadlock lasted all of two minutes, as Logan-Rogersville midfielder Abel Seu drew a foul inside the box and Sage Ballard converted the ensuing penalty kick to restore the one-goal lead.
That score held until the 58th minute, when Rylen Ballard knocked in the rebound of a Stewart McDonald free kick to give the Wildcats a 3-1 advantage with only 22 minutes remaining.
The penalty kick stood up as the decisive tally.
“I didn’t think it was going to be the game-winner, but I knew I was never going to get that moment back,” Sage Ballard said. “I had to put it away, so I did what I had to do. It helped us keep the lead for most of the game. When we put that third one in, we were pretty much set.”
A large part of that can be attributed to Logan-Rogersville’s defense and Goodson, who made a couple of highlight-reel saves in the second half to preserve the lead.
The first came in the 52nd minute, when he turned away Ford’s initial shot and caught the rebound while falling to the turf. Rylen Ballard scored the insurance goal just six minutes later.
The second key stop came with just over six minutes to play, when Goodson got just enough of a challenging shot to deflect it off the crossbar. Osage then put the rebound out of bounds.
“Our defense, they put in their work,” Goodson said. “They covered back side the entire time. I didn’t have to get onto them for any of that. They covered the runs. Every single time someone was in the run on their back side and in behind them, they covered it really well. They got back. They crashed the goal perfectly.”
Wubbena said Goodson has been “underrated” throughout the regular season, as the Wildcats had only allowed 18 total goals through the beginning of the playoffs.
“He hasn’t had a lot of opportunity to really get to anything because our defense snuffs it out,” Wubbena said. “Our midfield is good and we kind of hold possession.”
But Osage (15-7) and its quick transition presented a matchup challenge for the Wildcats, so Goodson saw more shots than he is accustomed to seeing and rose to the occasion.
“He really came alive,” Wubbena said. “He was good in the back. He made some good saves. He touched the ball a lot. I was real proud of him.”
Goodson’s steady presence has helped the team thrive despite graduating all-district and all-conference keeper Kobe Fisher, who played all but eight minutes for the Wildcats a year ago.
“Oh my gosh, Brady’s been unbelievable,” Sage Ballard said. “We had Kobe last year. He was such a good goalkeeper and we didn’t know if we could replace him. We already had Brady and we knew how good he was, but Brady stepped up this year — and he needed to today.”
Now the Wildcats will immediately begin preparing for their first trip to the state tournament.
“We’ve had practices before where we’ve said ‘Let’s just take a day off’ and they’ve kind of been upset about it,” Wubbena said. “They just love to be out here and play. They’re excited about the next week. I know I’m glad that we have a week off because we’re kind of banged up.”
Sage Ballard is one of those players, as he had to briefly exit the game in the first half after taking an elbow to the face. The collision left him bloody, but he quickly returned to play.
Nothing was going to prevent him from delivering on his promise.
“This is one of the best days of my life,” the senior said. “This is what I’ve wanted for a while. We’re champions. We’re district champions for the first time in Rogersville history. I love it.”
