De Soto High School boys varsity soccer team won in a thriller, 1-0 over Kansas Christian Academy in sudden death overtime on Sept. 28. Ironically, the final goal was not scored by a Wildcat, but by a deflected ball from KCA in sudden death.

Throughout the entire game, both teams had come close to creating an opportunity to score, but failed to find the net. DHS had several promising shots in the latter minutes of the first half: junior defender Andrew Dowdy had an impressive drive to the goal at the 19:40 mark. Later, the Wildcats came close to scoring again by a penalty kick from senior midfielder Austin Culver to senior attacker Noah Lamar at the 17:30 minute mark.

While DHS created opportunities, so did KCA. Several times they drove down the field themselves, but were often called back for offside penalties or blockaded out by senior goalie Isaac Albert.

The KCA head coach, Allan Chugg, admitted that both teams were evenly matched.

“Both teams ran very hard, and played well together. The frontline and the midfield of De Soto was really strong; ours was the midfield and the back. Both teams used their strengths well,” Chugg said.

KCA came out very strong in the second half and almost converted a goal two minutes in, but DHS pushed them out and drove all the way down to the opposing goal. Unfortunately, this repeated several times throughout the half.

The last few minutes decided the game for the Wildcats. Both teams were neck and neck all game, but without some key saves by senior goalie Isaac Albert, the game would have been much more difficult. In the last thirty seconds of the second half, Albert saved a goal to keep the score 0-0 going into overtime.

“It felt really good … I did a little bit, but they had to score that goal. It was pretty good, I did a little bit [to help DHS win,]” Albert said.

Eventually, what decided the game was a key mistake by KCA: they kicked the ball into their own goal.

Considering this has been the losing factor against DHS twice, deflection goals are a part of the game. After last night’s league win, DHS will play opponent Ottawa high school tonight at 6:15.