The Mason County Royals hosted the Calvary Christian Cougars on the soccer field Thursday night.
This game marked the two team’s second meeting of the 2024 season, with the Cougars walking away with a 2-0 shutout victory over the Royals at home, two weeks ago. This go around, Mason County was eager to jump out ahead of Calvary Christian, looking to avenge their loss as the 2024 regular season comes to a close.
The Cougars were just as eager for a win, however, and quickly picked up the first goal of the night, with Josh Ruwe slipping a shot past Mason County goalkeeper Cade Pugh to lead 1-0 over the Royals nine minutes into the first half. Calvary Christian’s second goal of the night would then come ten minutes later, Ruwe once again able to work his way behind the Mason County defense, allowing the Cougars to lead 2-0 over Mason County.
The score would then remain unchanged throughout the rest of the first half, the Royals heading into the second half down 2-0, but still unwilling to go down easy.
“It just seemed like we were a little slow getting to the balls in the very beginning, in the first half. They’ve got a great scorer, I think he’s pretty much leading the state right now, and I can see why, he’s quick as lightning.” said Royals head coach, Shane Taylor, “It just seemed like we weren’t settled in, in the beginning, before we knew it my boys looked up and we were down 2-0, so I was very proud of how much they came back to work in the second half to make this a ball game.”
Coming into the second half down 2-0, the Royals were hungry to get their offense moving, and were eventually able to send one in to score, 15 minutes into the half. The goal scored by Noah Gardner was Mason County’s first of the contest, with another scored shortly after to tie the contest 2-2.
“I think the boys felt like, hey we haven’t played our best. I think before you know we woke up and okay we’re down two zero but we can play better than this, and I think after halftime that’s what they showed.” said coach Taylor.
As the second half continued, the Cougars were able to once again build up a two-point lead over Mason County, with two more goals scored. Mason County would score again with just under 18 minutes left in the contest, now down 4-3 against the Cougars. Before Mason County could tie the score once again, the Cougars scored their fifth and final goal of the contest, with Ruwe able to slip by Pugh once again.
Mason County then scored their final goal of the night, with Noah Gardner working past the Cougars’ defense with just over eight minutes left on the clock. Despite continuous efforts from both teams, neither would be able to score again, the contest ending with Calvary Christian up 5-4 over the Royals, after a competitive second half.
“It’s been a roller-coaster with them. When you have their type of talent, we have an amazing defense and they’ve got talented offensive players. It’s a battle, it always is.” said coach Taylor.
Despite the 5-4 loss, coach Taylor is proud of his teams performance, and their grit, and feels comfortable moving into postseason play this week.
“Like I told the boys, to move further in the region, district those type of things, these are the type of people we’re going to need to be able to beat. I was very proud of them tonight, they worked very hard in the second half, came back from a 2-0 deficit to end up 5-4.” said coach Taylor, “I think the boys are feeling good, as long as I can have them all healthy. When you play great teams like this, things happen. Hopefully Mason’s going to be okay, and hopefully I can just get them all healthy by district time, but the boys feel confident.”
The Royals will play their last regular season game this afternoon, at home against the St. Pat Saints, hoping to close out the 2024 season on a high note before preparing for a tough bracket in the 38th district tournament this coming week.