Male nips Manual in shootout in boys' 12th district soccer

A dream came true for Alex Oyler as Male edged archrival Manual 3-2 in a shootout in the 12th District high school boys’ soccer tournament semifinals Tuesday night at Manual Stadium.

Oyler made the decisive penalty kick for the Bulldogs as they avenged a 2-1 loss to Manual on Sept. 8 by winning the shootout 5-3.

“I was dreaming about it all day,” said Oyler, a senior. “I put the ball in the bottom right corner. I couldn’t have put it in a better place if I wanted to.”

The teams were tied at 2 after 80 minutes of regulation and two five-minute overtime periods.

In the shootout, each team had five players try a PK against the other team’s goalie.

Male made all five of its kicks against Manual goalie Ian Johnson. Manual cashed in on its first two attempts, but Male goalie Lee Lewis blocked Manual’s third try, by Patrick Frentz.

“He came up to the ball, and I couldn’t tell where he was going to go,” Lewis said. “So I stayed in the middle. He kicked it right to me. I was lucky I didn’t dive to the right instead of staying in the middle.”

Lewis said his play was no big deal.

“I didn’t do anything special,” he said. “We went up 2-0 early, but it was 2-2 at halftime and that made me nervous in the second half.”

Male (17-5-1) advanced to play top-ranked St. Xavier (21-1-1) for the district title at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Both teams will advance to regional play next week. St. X nipped Male 3-2 in their regular-season meeting Sept. 1.

St. X won its 20th straight game by beating St. Francis 4-0 in the other semifinal. Gabe Stewart, Mitchell Metzger, Adam Kirsch and Logan Riely scored for the Tigers in the first half. Metzger also got an assist.

“I’m not worried about that (the final with St. X),” said Chris Barron, Male’s first-year coach. “I just want to celebrate the fact that this is our first trip out of the district in 10 years. That was our main goal for the year.”

In the shootout, Male got goals from Amar Sejdic, Campbell Morris, Brian Romero, Trey Ray and Oyler. Manual’s Connor Shea and Richard Ballard connect on their PKs, and Sean Garvey also made his. Manual’s fifth try wasn’t necessary.

“School was out the last two days, so we had a shootaround this morning,” Barron said. “We practiced PKs then.”

Male took a quick 2-0 lead when Kaleb Bayse scored with 38:29 left in the first half and Sejdic, a freshman, connected with 27:02 to go. Manual tied it on goals by Chad Tevebaugh at the 17:37 mark and by Richard Ballard with 5:36 remaining.

“That was Amar’s 20th goal this season, and he has 21 assists,” Barron said.

Ballard, who has committed to Indiana University, was disappointed the season ended for the Crimsons (14-6-1).

“I’m at a loss for words,” he said. “We came out slow, but we fought back. They packed it in on us in the second half. They had two men on me all the time.”

Manual coach Bob Ramsey said his team “got down 2-0, but we fought back and made a game of it all the way through.”