Dragons good enough for a trip to regional final
Story courtesy of The Pilot News.
ARGOS — In a nearly dead-even game the Argos Dragons were better, just often enough, to head to the regional final with a 2-1 win over Carroll (Flora).
It was a battle of goalies, much as it was in Argos’s sectional win over North White, and once again Argos keeper Boyd Paul came out with a number of big saves.
The biggest was at 10:18 in the second half with Argos leading 2-1. A handball in the box gave Carroll a point-blank penalty kick. Paul turned it away.
“Boyd has answered the call every time,” said Argos coach Damon Binkley. “Saturday he made a lot of big saves in the shoot-out. Tonight he made one mistake and I think he’d tell you that but he definitely made a big save that arguably won it for us.”
The first half was a struggle for both teams, with Argos the aggressor early and after the halfway point in the first half, Carroll taking up the attack.
Carroll was able to jump in front in the second half with a clear shot in front of the goal by Isaiah Jones with 26:03 to play.
Argos’s Luke Stults answered less than 30 seconds later with a goal at 25:26 to tie the score.
Just two minutes later Stults hit another with a perfect long-distance bomb that snuck over the keeper’s head and would prove to be the game-winner.
From there it was up to the Argos defense.
“We knew (Eli Falkenberg) was a great player, we knew Owen Wise was a great player,” said Binkley. “We had an idea of what we wanted to do. We just adjusted our backline to try to take away, or at least mitigate their offense. They can be potent if they get behind you.”
It was another physical battle similar to Argos’s sectional final win.
“North White’s intensity, taking us down to the wire definitely prepared us for tonight,” said Binkley. “There are certain things that you get in games like that that you can’t recreate in practice. As bad as it is for my nerves I’m glad they pushed us. It prepared us for tonight.
“Carroll is a great team. They’ve proved that. They played hard but we just had an answer tonight.”
Argos at 6-13 will move on to play the winner of the Park Tudor vs. Muncie Burris contest in the regional final at Taylor High School at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Carroll ends their season at 15-5-1.
•ARGOS 2, CARROLL 1
at Eugene Snyder Field
Scoring:
Second half
C — 26:03 Isaiah Jones
A — 25:26 Luke Stults
A — 23:12 Luke Stults
