Muhlenberg County junior, Kye Morse, scored a goal with less than five minutes to play Monday night that sent Grayson County’s Cougars down to a 3-2 defeat in the opening round of the 3rd Region Soccer Tournament, being played at Owensboro Catholic.
The Cougars had trailed 2-0 two minutes into the second half and had to claw their way back to score twice and tie the game 2-2 in the 63rd minute.
The Mustangs took an early 1-0 lead in the 11th minute of play. Awarded a free kick about 30 yards out to the right of the Cougar goal, Morse sent a crossing pass to the left post perfectly onto the foot of sophomore Camden Newman who put the ball past Cougar goal keeper Brady Whobrey. That was all the scoring in the first half.
Things looked bleak for the Cougars when, just two minutes into the second half, sophomore Dawson Guffy scored for the Mustangs to make it 2-0.
But just two minutes later, junior Matthew Haycraft, working down deep in the left corner of Mustang territory, sent a pass across to senior Logan Raymer, who booted it home to cut the Cougar deficit in half at 2-1.
In the 63rd minute, the Cougars were applying heavy pressure on the Mustang goal when junior Malaki Clemons put a shot on goal that Mustang keeper Tyson Shanks had to dive to deflect away. But the ball went right to sophomore Josh Stevenson, who put it into the net to tie the game at 2-2.
In the 69th minute, Raymer received his second yellow card and had to leave the game, meaning the Cougars would be playing the last 10 minutes a man down.
But a minute later Haycraft was dragged down in the penalty area, giving the Cougars a penalty kick. Haycraft took the shot, but Shanks made a diving save on the ball leaving the game tied.
Then, in the 76th minute, Morse was bringing the ball up through the middle of the field when he sent an arching shot toward the Cougar goal from about 30 yards out. The ball just eluded the leaping Whobrey and settled into the back of the net giving the Mustangs the lead.
With just four minutes left, the Cougars scrambled for the equalizer, but could not make a connection and their season ended at 12-7-2.
By Don Brown, Local Sports
Reach Don at donbrown@k105.com
