Colonels held the Titans scoreless, they came in averaging over 6 per match and had not been blanked this season.

Amazing postseason run this program has been on the last two years. Keep rolling guys!

Great job Colonels! Not done yet!

Colonels get bookend goals 2 minutes into the game and again with 2 minutes left in the game and in between a dominating defensive effort on their way to the state semi-finals for the second year in a row. Goals by Wulfeck and Lamb.

Who does Cov Cath play or potentially play next?

Who does Cov Cath play or potentially play next?

 

Winner of North Hardin/Perry County Central being played today.

Wow! Nice work, fellas!!

By Nate Bryan October 29, 2016

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LEXINGTON, Ky. – For the Covington Catholic Colonels, the second verse was almost the same – and as sweet – as the first.

 

During their boys soccer state championship run last year, the Colonels had to overcome a Louisville monster to pull off Northern Kentucky’s first title in the sport.

 

They did it again Saturday afternoon, as the Ninth Region champion Colonels stunned, shocked and shut out the favored Collegiate Titans 2-0 in the opening quarterfinal at Lafayette High School’s Ishmael Stadium.

 

Collegiate, which had a hard enough path of its own by having to go through Trinity and St. Xavier in less than five days to win the rough-and-tumble Seventh Region, was looking to pull off a double state title after winning the All “A'”Classic.

 

Instead, the Titans (24-2-1) will have to settle for their second elite eight appearance in five seasons and the state team record for single-season goals.

 

“It was an unbelievable season and I’m disappointed for the boys,” said Titans coach Chad Wozniak, whose team was the highest-ranked quarterfinalist in both the coaches’ vote and the Maher computer rankings. “We simply didn’t play good today.”

 

And Covington Catholic (21-5-2) simply did – early, late and everything in between.

 

The Colonels got an early goal as junior Noah Wulfeck headed in a right-side corner kick from junior Dominic Russo for Wulfeck’s seventh goal of the season and Russo’s fifth assist.

 

“I just had to take the opportunity and try to put it in the net,” said Wulfeck, who wasn’t on the varsity last season during the Colonels’ postseason march. “I just told myself that I had to win it and put it in the goal.”

 

Less than 200 seconds into the match, the Titans were forced into unfamiliar territory. Wulfeck’s header marked just the second time, and first in the Titans’ final 25 matches, that they trailed at any point in a match. The only other time that happened was Aug. 18 at home in a 3-1 loss to St. Xavier.

 

“The coaches, we all talked about what’s going to happen when this team does find themselves in a hole because it’s going to happen, no matter what,” Wozniak said. “And, unfortunately, that didn’t work out well for us. We decided that this game wasn’t the game to be playing the same way that we had all year.”

 

Things never got better for the Titans, who had a machine-like 162 goals entering Saturday. Their attempts over the top in the first half didn’t amount to many significant chances on goal and their crosses in the second half were thwarted time and time again by a Colonels defense which pulled many midfielders back to help.

 

“Our defense was very disciplined today and we were touch tight,” said Colonels coach Jeremy Robertson, whose team earned its 16th clean sheet of the season while becoming the only squad to blank the high-octane Titans this year. “We did what we talked about in not letting people turn. I told them at the beginning that it would be the team that makes the mistakes which will be punished for them, and in our defensive thir we did not make any mistakes today.”

 

After failing to mark Wulfeck in the first four minutes, the Titans made another mistake in the final three minutes. Colonels leading scorer Griffin Lamb had a 1-on-4 opportunity and instead of playing the ball back to milk the clock like Covington Catholic had done in previous possessions, a simple move allowed the senior forward to spring free and tuck away his 32nd goal in 28 games with just 2:28 left in the game.

 

“That was the nail in the coffin,” said Wozniak, whose team allowed multiple goals for just the third time this year. “It just really stinks. We had an unbelievable season, but that wasn’t the way we wanted to end it.”

I listened to the game. Would like to hear details from people that attended. Collegiate played a schedule that was very weak during the season. The record goal scoring against weak teams didn't provide adequate preparation on pressing late and playing with urgency. It seemed they couldn't get it together for a late charge.

 

From the radio call it seemed that Collegiate didn't handle the loss in sporting fashion with the "giving" of balls to CC for throw ins?

 

I would like to hear someone break the game down

As time was slipping away in the second half, a couple of the Collegiate players would throw the ball to CCH players (when the ball went out of bounds for CCH throw ins) trying to keep the game going. Let's just say they were tossing it with a little too much velocity. They lost a little composure I thought.

 

CCH conceded a lot of possession after their early score and Collegiate didn't play with much urgency at all. Collegiate went to 3-5-2 in the second half and CCH countered by going to 4-5-1 the entire second half. Collegiate couldn't solve it and seemed reluctant to serve balls from the outside. Haji was a non-factor most of the game.

 

CCH defense just too good and fast for Collegiate to solve. Going to 3 defenders vs CCH it's just a matter of time before Lamb gets through and that happened with a couple minutes left.

And for the record, CCH radio logged their largest soccer audience, matching the listener audience they had for the CCH/Highlands football game.

James Weber , [email protected]5:46 p.m. EDT October 29, 2016

 

LEXINGTON - Even facing a team with a state record 162 goals this season, the Covington Catholic boys soccer team didn’t waver from its game plan.

The Colonels (21-5-2) posted their 16th shutout of the season and sixth out of seven postseason games with a 2-0 win over Louisville Collegiate Saturday afternoon at Lafayette High School.

The Colonels, who graduated 18 seniors from last year’s state championship team, advanced to Thursday’s semifinal against North Hardin (19-8-1).

“No one believed we could do it but we’re just trying to win each game one by one,” said senior defender Michael Vogt.

Collegiate (24-2-1) was ranked No. 1 in the state coaches poll and had not been shut out all season. A large portion of the Titans’ goals had come against Class “A” competition, including 53 in six games to win the All “A” Classic state championship. However, the Titans knocked off traditional big-school powers St. Xavier and Trinity to win the Seventh Region championship after beating St. X to win the 26th District.

Against CovCath, Collegiate had one shot in the first half and nine for the game, three on goal. With Vogt leading the defense and directing traffic in the back, the Colonels rarely gave up a close scoring opportunity. Collegiate’s best chance came with six minutes left on a close shot that went just wide of the goal.

“We were spot on on our defense,” Vogt said. “We didn’t want to let them turn on anything. We saw that on video. That’s how they beat teams… We’re all close. It’s all about chemistry on defense. We just keep it tight and we can win games.”

“We talked about being disciplined in the back and not letting them turn, try not to form any gaps in the back line,” said CovCath head coach Jeremy Robertson. “This was going to be a game of who makes the mistakes. We were lucky enough to not make very many in our defensive third.”

CovCath scored just three minutes into the game on a goal by junior Noah Wulfeck, his seventh of the season, coming off a corner kick by junior Dominic Russo.

“I got myself open and hit it as hard as I could,” Wulfeck said. “It was huge. It got us started and we played well the rest of the game.”

With the Titans playing forward late in the match, Griffin Lamb knocked in a wide-open shot from close range for his 32nd of the year.

As time was slipping away in the second half, a couple of the Collegiate players would throw the ball to CCH players (when the ball went out of bounds for CCH throw ins) trying to keep the game going. Let's just say they were tossing it with a little too much velocity. They lost a little composure I thought.

 

CCH conceded a lot of possession after their early score and Collegiate didn't play with much urgency at all. Collegiate went to 3-5-2 in the second half and CCH countered by going to 4-5-1 the entire second half. Collegiate couldn't solve it and seemed reluctant to serve balls from the outside. Haji was a non-factor most of the game.

 

CCH defense just too good and fast for Collegiate to solve. Going to 3 defenders vs CCH it's just a matter of time before Lamb gets through and that happened with a couple minutes left.

 

Sounds like a few kids were letting their emotions get the better of them a little in the face of their season (or high school career?) coming to an end. Nothing to make a big deal out of with that.

 

Congratulations on a great season to the guys at Collegiate!

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

 

Covington Catholic upends No. 1 Collegiate

 

BY JOSH MOORE

[email protected]

 

Covington Catholic eyes a title a repeat in the KHSAA State Boys’ Soccer Tournament this season, but it does so with a bunch of new eyeballs. It made a big step towards that goal with a 2-0 victory over Collegiate in the state quarterfinals Saturday afternoon at Lafayette.

 

The Colonels graduated 18 seniors from the team that defeated Henry Clay 3-0 in last year’s state finals, the first team from Northern Kentucky to win the boys’ title. CovCath returned only nine players who logged minutes last season, five of whom accounted for 20 of its 109 goals in 2015.

 

One of those returnees is Griffin Lamb, who scored twice in the finals and led the Colonels with 31 goal this season. He went one-on-one for an in-the-box dagger with 2:21 to play on Saturday.

 

Covington Catholic put the pressure on Collegiate early as Noah Wulfeck scored on a header ball assisted by Dominic Russo following a corner kick opportunity just 3:09 into the game.

 

“It’s exciting,” Lamb said. “We lost 18 seniors last year and they were good. ... We knew it was going to be difficult but these underclassmen have worked so hard all season.”

As I said on twitter, to be fair, Collegiate's schedule was watered-down by a FORCED appearance in the All-A ... if you pull out of the All-A in one sport, you pull out in ALL (didn't used to be that way). Cannot pick and choose which sports you compete in.

 

For Collegiate, a very small school who is going to get dismantled in other sports in The Ville, the All 'A' is a big deal.

 

Collegiate was in the Bulldog Cup (along with Trinity and North Oldham, which made the final) and had to pull out in the semifinals (Atherton took its spot) because of All 'A' state.

 

Taking All 'A' games out of the equation, Collegiate STILL scored 90+ goals this year on some decent teams (St. X, North Hardin, and Butler all made state and Collegiate put multiple goals on ALL of them. ... Absolutely waxed North Hardin and Butler).

 

That all being said, CovCath (who I hadn't seen in person since last year's win over Trinity) played well (and I hope I conveyed that).

 

Collegiate did not deserve to win. CovCath, even with a rebuilt roster, was better than Louisville's best ... again.