By Kai Raymer (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
In a season filled with big expectations, the Springfield Catholic Fightin’ Irish have rose to the challenge.
Thursday night was a huge step toward Catholic’s top goal. Catholic prevailed 2-1 over Carl Junction in an intense Class 3 District 6 Tournament title match to repeat as district champs.
Sophomores Lucas Mulherin (16’) and Tyler Holum (33’) provided the scoring for Catholic.
Despite a young roster – Catholic has just two seniors – the Irish entered 2024 with lofty goals coming off last season’s final four run.
“All year we’ve heard, ‘Hey, this team went to the final four last year.’ (Our players) have been carrying a lot of pressure on themselves, too,” said Catholic coach Tom Davidson. “But they’ve performed well.
“These games are hard to win. They just are. Everyone’s playing for their season.”
Those high stakes boiled over in the late stages of Thursday’s match.
After Victor Martinez scored with about 10 minutes remaining to bring Carl Junction within 2-1, a scuffle broke out in the net as the Bulldogs tried to bring the ball back to midfield for the restart. Both teams had a player ejected on a red card.
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The 10-on-10 match became 10-on-9 just a few minutes later when a second Carl Junction player was issued a red card and sent off. Catholic ran out the clock to victory against an out-manned Carl Junction squad.
“We try to play as true brothers out here and have each other’s back. You saw it there when stuff started going. Everybody got to each other, and we were with each other. That’s the biggest thing to keep us going,” said Catholic senior and co-captain Caden Hillwick. “It was getting heated. We try not to get into that. We ended up doing that tonight, but we still came out with a win.”’
Said Davidson: “When it gets tight like that late, you just don’t know what’s going to happen. It gets crazy on the sideline because you’re trying to manage your team and make sure they’re keeping their composure when everything is breaking loose on the field.”
Thursday night’s win puts Catholic on the verge of a return trip to the Class 3 state final four. The Irish finished 4th at state last season.
Catholic (22-4 overall) will host the District 5 winner – Capital City or St. Francis Borgia – in the quarterfinal round next Saturday, Nov. 16. Catholic beat Capital City 2-0 at home in late October.
“The one thing we were playing for was to have one more shot on our home turf,” Hillwick said. “Especially me and Taylor (Haik), the other senior. We wanted to play one more time here. We’re glad to get the chance and we’re going to take as much advantage of it as we can.”
Catholic’s resume includes victories over Nixa, Logan-Rogersville and Ozark. Three of Catholic’s four losses were against teams who are still playing in the postseason.
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“We’ve played almost all Class 3 and 4 teams,” Davidson said. “We wanted to be prepared for this. It’s been a tough schedule and for us to get through it the way we have is pretty special.”
Catholic took the early lead Thursday night on a set piece in the 16th minute.
Mathew Gerety’s free kick deflected off Luke Butler and over to Mulherin.
“It went through everybody and I just chested it down,” Mulherin said. “And then weak foot to the other side of the net. Felt great.”
Holum beat a defender after a methodical set-up and scored to put the Irish up 2-0 by halftime.
Catholic’s biggest strength this season has been its scoring balance, Davidson said.
Five Catholic players have tallied 10 or more goals. Gerety (20 assists) has been the primary facilitator.
“We’re getting goals from everywhere,” Davidson said. “I think that is probably the real key to our success. You can’t double or bracket a specific player for us because so many kids can score.”
Carl Junction finishes one of its best seasons in program history at 20-4 overall. The 20 wins are the most in any season for the Bulldogs, who were seeking their first district title since 2016.
