Coloma eliminates Cass
Published 3:12 am Thursday, October 21, 2010
Cassopolis’ Nathan Blad (22) reaches to kick a ball against Coloma’s Christian Lopez during Wednesday’s Division 3 District Soccer Tournament semifinals. The Comets edged the Rangers 2-1 on a penalty kick in the second half by Lopez. (The Daily News/Scott Novak)
Coloma’s Christian Lopez scored his 11th goal of the season with just 18:54 remaining on the clock to lift the Comets to their first district title game with a 2-1 win over Cassopolis.
The two teams battled throughout the match with the winner advancing to Saturday’s title match against the winner of today’s Dowagiac-Hartford match.
Coloma (7-9-2) got on the board first as Ronnie Burchfield scored in the 11th minute.
Twenty two minutes later, the Rangers were able to tie the score at 1-1 on a goal by Kelvin Curtis.
Following the Lopez goal, Cassopolis increased the pressure and over the final five minutes of the match had several quality scoring chances against Comets’ keeper Tyler Hester.
“We had fantastic offensive pressure,” Cassopolis coach Oli Olafsson said of the last offensive charge by the Rangers. “We had two or three chances at an open goal and you can’t ask anything more that that.”
Olafsson said that the slow start by the Rangers was caused by the fact that Coloma used a different line-up than the first time they met — a 6-6 tie early in the season.
“The kids wanted to see what they wanted to do,” he said.
Both teams finished with 12 shots on goal in the contest.
Dowagiac and Hartford will meet at 4:30 today for a spot in the finals. The Chieftains defeated the Indians 6-2 earlier in the season.
Coloma…2
Cassopolis…1
Halftime score
Coloma 1, Cassopolis 1
First half
CO – Ronnie Burchfield 11th minute
CA – Kelvin Curtis 33rd minute
Second half
CO – Christian Lopez 61st minute (penalty kick)
Shots on goal
Coloma 12
Cassopolis 12
