By Jordan Burton
Carthage had two objectives entering Saturday’s quarterfinal matchup with Rolla – advance to the Final Four and end a 26-year run at the Fair Acres Complex the right way.
The Tigers did both, shutting out Rolla in the second half to seal a 2-1 win, sending Carthage to the state semifinals for the third time in the last five seasons.
“This field opened in 1990 and has been very good to us,” said Carthage coach Jacob Osborne. “That was on our mind tonight, shutting this thing down the right way.”
Carthage will christen a new field next fall and will have a final four banner to hang thanks to Saturday’s effort.
As has been a goal for the team all season, Carthage was able to strike first on a breakaway goal from freshman David Garcia in the 26th minute.
The Tigers controlled much of the action in the opening half and it seemed as if they would take that 1-0 lead into the intermission, but Jarrett Gabriele’s goal with just 90 seconds remaining in the half knotted the game at one and gave Rolla a boost of energy to start the second half.
That energy persisted through much of the second half with the Bulldogs controlling the action and generating several scoring opportunities, but couldn’t produce another goal.
The game’s momentum would swing for good in the 65th minute when Daniel Villatoro found the back of the net following an Elder Reyes cross. Both of Carthage’s goals were scored by reserve players.
“We’ve got a couple of guys known for their goals, but we have a lot of skilled kids that can put the ball in the net and that makes us dangerous,” said Osborne. “Both David and Daniel are bench players but on most other teams they would be starters.”
The game’s final 15 minutes were marred with physical play and yellow cards, but the Carthage defense came up with several crucial stops to thwart each Rolla rally.
After losing in the quarterfinals in each of the last two seasons, Osborne believes that adversity and his team maturing is the reason they were able to rebound from adversity on Saturday.
“This same group of guys two years ago was freshmen and sophomores the year after we went to state and that season anytime something went wrong there was no coming back from it,” said Osborne. “Even last year we had zero comeback wins. This year we’ve had several comebacks and that says a lot about their growth.”
This position also isn’t new for Rolla.
The Bulldogs lost to Carthage the last time they advanced to the quarterfinals back in 2012. That game was also in Carthage.
Rolla coach Mike Howard wore the pain of another tough loss playoff loss on Saturday, but spoke proudly of his team’s effort and season overall.
“I’m going to miss this group; it was so much fun this season because these are some great kids,” said Howard. “Unfortunately, that’s the way it goes unless you win a state championship. Nobody expected us to win conference, win districts or win sectionals so it was a great season for us. This is a very difficult place to play. We just got beat by a good team today, Carthage is going to do well in St. Louis.”
Regardless of what happens against Grain Valley on Friday in Fenton, Carthage’s season will end next Saturday.
Each of the Tigers’ last two Final Four trips ended with a loss in the state championship, but the team is hoping a grueling schedule – which includes a loss to nationally-ranked Louisville Collegiate at the Gateway Classic in St. Louis – as well as a current 8-game winning streak has the team prepared to complete the run.
“If we want to get to where we want to go, we have to play the best teams we can,” said Osborne. “We took some lumps but grew from it. That schedule has been key for us and helped put us in this position. We haven’t lost since we left St. Louis and hope we can go back up there and play well.”
