Boys' soccer: Male beats Dunbar

No. 10 Male 2, No. 5 Dunbar 1 (SO): "We played like it was our first game," Dunbar Coach Todd Bretz said. "We made a lot of mistakes. We played very nervous, very tentative. Male is a very good team, and they capitalized."

Leading 1-0, Male lost Josh Eckert to a red card with just under 33 minutes left when he protested a foul call.

With 29:19 left, Andy Romero was sent off for a hard foul.

Just 38 seconds after Romero left, Kerek Plummer tied the match, cleaning up a loose ball about 10 yards off the goal line and knocking it inside the left post.

Dunbar's Nathan Jones was denied when Male goalkeeper Lee Lewis charged out and swept the ball off Jones' foot.

With seven minutes left, Male's Larry Gowdy banged a shot from 18 yards out. Creek keeper Jon Hurley deflected the ball just enough to bounce off the far post.

In the shootout (there was no overtime), Amar Sejdic, Campbell Morris, Stephen Merrick, Bryan Romero and Trey Rey all scored for Male.

Lewis stopped Dunbar's second shooter, Nick DiMeo. "He pretty much saved the game for us," Chris Barron, coach of the Louisville Bulldogs, said of Lewis. "Especially with that last breakaway save (against Jones)."

Lexington's Bulldogs got shootout tallies from Austin Miller, Riley Calhoon, Cesar Delgado and Jones.

Sejdic, a freshman midfielder, tallied 7½ minutes into the match, lofting a shot from 25 yards out from the left wing.

"I'm very proud of them," Barron said. "(Dunbar) held possession for the last 27 minutes. With two men down, that's pretty good."

Dunbar has plenty of games left to come together. "We didn't take advantage of the numbers-up situation," Bretz said. "But a lot of that is inexperience — we didn't realize how to do it.

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/08/17/1848067/caught-short-footed-male-boys.html#ixzz1VKH7Em7H