By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

UNION – In Northern Kentucky, the Twitter hastag #BeatColonels has become extremely popular in years.

Both the Highlands Bluebirds and Newport Central Catholic Colonels needed to do just that to advance in the 9th Region semifinals on Thursday at Ryle. Highlands beat the Dixie Heights version in the second game. But NewCath (14-4-1) did it with penalty kicks by a 3-1 count over the Covington Catholic version after neither team scored in regulation or the two five-minute overtime periods.

The teams meet Saturday at 3 p.m. back at Ryle for the 9th Region title and the season rubber match. Highlands won the season-opener for both teams, 2-1 on Aug. 20. But NewCath won the 36th District championship by the same score on Oct. 15. Both games took place at Tower Park.

Highlands 4, Dixie Heights 0:

Bluebird Head Coach Matthew Winkler said it’s about playing your best soccer at this time of the season. It’s hard to argue with two 4-0 shutouts in two 9th Region tournament games. Highlands (15-7-1) also shut out host Ryle on Tuesday.

“For the seniors, this is good for them,” Winkler said. “We lost (1-0 to St. Henry) in the first round of region last year. So for them to bounce back and have a lot of heart and put a lot of time and effort into this has really paid off for them.”

The Bluebirds outshot the Colonels, 15-10 and both teams had nine shots on goal. Highlands did not let Dixie Heights (13-9-2) get any hard shots. Nathan Tippenhauer made both his saves in the second half for the Bluebirds and Colonel goalkeeper Conner Spivey had four.

“We’ve been working well as a unit,” said Jovid Llerena, Highlands senior defender. “That’s all we’ve been working on the last two weeks. This is our family. We got to have each other’s backs.”

Highlands also made the most of its corner kicks scoring all three goals in the second half off them. Sophomore Noah Sellers recorded his two assists on the first two goals off the corner kicks.

“We were just kicking (balls) well and putting them on peoples’ heads,” Sellers said. “I’m just trying to put it in the middle – a well-driven ball across the face of the goal (at) head level trying to find Chris Garbig most of the time. We can keep finding him against the marks. If they double-team him, we’ll find someone else.”

Highlands took the lead just 4:30 into the game. Jordan Jarvis scored for the Bluebirds off a Chris Garbig assist. Highlands kept that 1-0 lead at halftime. Jarvis and Garbig lead the team with nine assists each.

Dixie Heights outshot Highlands, 8-6 in the first half including 7-2 on goal. Junior Nick Breslin made his seven saves in that half of action for the Bluebirds.

The Bluebirds put the game away in the second half starting with another goal around five minutes in the half. Sellers found Garbig for a score with 34:38 left in the half. Garbig leads Highlands with 15 goals on the season.

Highlands did not waste any time scoring its next goal. Sellers found Colin Dean on another corner kick with 32:48 left in the half. That put Dean in double-digits on the year with 10 goals.

“Their middle core is really good so we knew we’d have to come down and work the ball from the outside in,” Winkler said. “That’s exactly what we did. We’ve been training for that all year. I’m glad it worked (Thursday).”

The Bluebirds added their final goal with 3:05 left in the game. Andrew Barnes found Alex Shepherd for the score.

“We were really worried that the (Dixie Heights) intensity level was going to change in the second half,” Winkler said. “We had to match it or beat it. We met it for sure so it helped us.”

The Bluebirds last played for a region championship in 2010. They beat Campbell County, 2-0 to win the 10th Region that year before losing 3-1 to Scott in the state quarterfinals. Highlands made three straight 10th Region title game appearances between 2008 and 2010. The Bluebirds finished state runner-up in 2008.

Newport Central Catholic 1, Covington Catholic 0:

In the first semifinal, Paul Grosser made three straight saves on the penalty kicks to lift the Thoroughbreds to their third straight appearance in a regional championship. NewCath won the 10th Region, 2-1 over the same Colonels and lost 2-0 in last year’s 9th Region title game, 2-0 to Boone County.

NewCath’s Ben Tierney and CovCath’s Joe Schuh made their penalty kicks to start off. But after Patrick Louis made his penalty kick for NewCath, Grosser blocked Brice Day’s attempt sliding to his left.

“We’ve been working on these penalty kicks the last three weeks knowing it might come down to it,” said Mike McDonald, NewCath Head Coach. “That’s outstanding to save three PKs. You don’t ever see that. He stepped up and did what we asked him.”

The Thoroughbreds scored a couple of penalty kicks with deception. They acted like they’d shoot one way and it veered another direction.

“It’s all about where you look,” Louis said. “In a sense, you never want to look where you’re going. It’s about repetition in practice.”

Then following Nick Huesman’s score for NewCath, Grosser rejected Corey Craig’s attempt with another slide block. The Thoroughbreds did not put the game away on their next shot, but Grosser stopped CovCath’s Parker Kenney to end the game.

CovCath ended up outshooting NewCath, 28-16 including 18-8 on goal. Grosser finished with 11 saves and Sam Romes had seven for the Colonels. The Colonels had a few shots go off the post in that half and NewCath’s leading goal-scorer in Matt Tolle had a good attempt in a run-out with 6:10 left, but his shot went wide.

“That’s the funny thing about soccer,” said Jeremy Robertson, CovCath Head Coach. “You can dominate a game and still not have it go your way. I thought NCC played a heck of a game. When we played them during the regular season, it was a good game. You can’t be made at (the CovCath players). It’s tough going out on (penalty kicks).”

CovCath outshot NewCath, 12-5 including 10-3 on goal in the first half. CovCath had two free kicks near the Thoroughbred attacking third in that half, but could not punch it in. The Colonels ran offsides on one of the attempts.

“We rely on our defense a lot,” McDonald said. “Our goal against average all season has been fantastic. We showed it (Thursday). Our back four is phenomenal along with our midfield defense. I couldn’t ask for a better defensive team.”

The Thoroughbreds keyed on CovCath senior midfielder/forward Dan Chal. Chal did not get off any clean shots in the game.

“We couldn’t let (Chal) turn and we had to make sure we knew where he was at all points,” Huesman said. “We also had to go in hard to him.”

The Colonels ended their season at 12-7-3 overall with a 35th District championship. CovCath won the regular season meeting, 4-3 on Sept. 12 at Morscher Field.

 

Fort Thomas Sports

Congratulations to NCC . . . it wasn't the prettiest game to watch but it was an effective demonstration of how to execute a strategy and move on. Even though time of possession and shots looked off, both teams only had 1 or 2 shots that were real threats. CCH continued it's recent success of scoring by moving the ball to the corner and a cross to the box which was muffed out every time by NCC. If you're a NKY soccer fan, you'll quickly notice this is how CCH has scored the majority of their goals coming into last nights game. As you saw, NCC allowed CCH to play the ball in the mid-field all game long because it was never a threat to score for that part of the field. NCC then countered with long balls out of the box.

How about the play of Noah Sellers in this Regional Tourney! He is only a soph and is turning in one heck of a performance in the tourney. He scored in the first game of the tourney and then has two assist on crosses in the semi's. Highlands has a great young team coming up to varsity next season and he should be one of their top players. Congrats Noah! All-District Tourney Team....Check! All-Region Tourney Team...? Good luck on Saturday versus NCC.

Having seen both of these teams I would pick Highlands in this game. I think they split during the season? That big field at Ryle favors a more skilled team and I think that's Highlands if they can stop the long ball game.

Should be another great game between Highlands and NCC. By the way, a big shout out to the old 10th region teams - Covington Catholic, Highlands and Newport Central Catholic - for dominating the final 4 in this years 9th region tournament. Well played gentlemen!!!