Published: October 12, 2008 12:44 am            

SOCCER SECTIONAL: The drought is over for Bulldogs

NEW ALBANY — The sectional-title drought is over for the New Albany boys’ soccer team.

On Saturday night at Prosser Field, the Bulldogs captured their first sectional title since 2002 with an 8-0 rout of Salem in the New Albany Sectional final. They will play Columbus North in the second semifinal of the Seymour Regional at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

“It feels good. It feels real good,” said New Albany head coach Dutch Vigar after his players drenched him with a bucket of water following the victory. “The guys have worked hard all season, and it’s a well-deserved victory for us.”

Bulldog senior Stephan Kossis put the game away early. He scored New Albany’s first three goals in the opening 19 minutes and 11 seconds of the game. His scores came at the 33:23 mark, the 27:39 mark and the 20:49 mark.

The Bulldogs proceeded to score two more goals before halftime. Freshman Kameron Jenkins kicked in a score with 11:35 left in the opening half. With 53 seconds remaining, teammate Nathan Blair chipped in a goal to give New Albany a 5-0 intermission advantage.

Senior Keegan O’Connor extended the lead to 6-0 with a goal at the 39:16 mark of the second half. Then teammate Denton White knocked in a score with 16:26 to go in regulation to make the score 7-0.

The final goal of the night was by Zacharia Litzelswope. The senior, who was the Dogs’ goalkeeper for the majority of the contest, kicked in his score with 4:40 left.

New Albany’s Adam McLaughlin and Justin Oliver each made two assists. Also recording assists for the Bulldogs were Kossis, Nick Blackwell, Sean O’Connor and Michael Chrisman.

Despite the win, Vigar thought his team could have played a little better.

“I didn’t think we played overly well,” he said. “We had lots of goals, but I don’t think we played that well. Our possession game wasn’t what I think it should’ve been. I think we turned the ball over too much.”

Vigar thinks the Bulldogs will have their work cut out for them if they are to win their first regional crown in six years.

“We’ve played some pretty good competition this year,” Vigar said. “We played teams that we’re rated high earlier in the year, and I know the competition is going to be tough. We will definitely have to play a better possession game and a little smarter game if we’re going to not embarrass ourselves.”



New Albany 8 (Kossis 3, Jenkins, Blair, K. O’Connor, White, Litzelswope), Salem 0

        

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