NEWS RELEASE

The Danville High School boys’ soccer team traveled to Berea for their first true road game of the season at Madison Southern on Tuesday night, where they dropped a 5-2 decision.

Ten minutes after the opening whistle they also faced their first deficit of the year as Cam Hechemy found Avery Davidson to open the scoring for the Eagles. The Ads continued to probe throughout the first half, putting together several combinations in the midfield. However, they failed to yield many serious chances in the final third. One of the lone exceptions came when Ashton Nash’s long diagonal ball found Abel Goodwin breaking free in the box. Southern’s defense recovered quickly, however, and snuffed out the opportunity without a shot taken.

The Ads dropped to 4-1-0 after outscoring their first four opponents 20-1.

The Ads dodged several bullets in the opening half’s final 10 minutes as the senior-laden Eagles turned up the pressure. Fox Spears cleared a potential score off the goal line, Hechemy drilled a shot from distance off the crossbar, and goalkeeper Grayson Nagorka saved a breakaway off the feet of Micah Whitaker. Perhaps the most dangerous chance came when Southern’s Ru Lemmer broke free at the back post but drilled a shot from close range just wide of the post with less than three minutes remaining before halftime. The Ads would consider themselves fortunate to go into the break only down 1-0.

The second half began with a flurry and would continue to see goal scoring opportunities at both ends. It only took four minutes for Hechemy to link up with Davidson once again as Southern took a 2-0 lead. That score would only stand for four minutes as Danville freshman Sasha Wade launched a long ball into the box from the right wing. The Southern defense failed to clear, and junior Nehmiah Espinoza capitalized by putting the ball in the net to bring Danville within one at 2-1. Two minutes later, senior Iain McAlister drilled a hard shot from 25 yards that rattled the crossbar before caroming off the Southern keeper for the tying score. The game continued to open up from there, but most of the chances were falling to Southern as they began to exploit Danville’s young back line.

The tie score would only last for two minutes as Hechemy once again fed Davidson only to be denied by Nagorka’s reaction save at close range. Hayden Jakubowski would not be denied on the ensuing corner, however, which he headed cleanly into the net to retake the lead. Nagorka saved several more shots on goal and Southern missed a few shots as well before a hard driven ball across the goal mouth deflected in for an own goal that gave the Eagles a two-goal cushion with 12 minutes on the clock. Davidson would eventually get his hat trick thanks to a goal with 5 seconds left that set the final score at 5-2.

The tale of two halves was reflected in the stats. After Southern earned the first half’s sole corner kick, the two teams combined for seven in the second. The single-goal opening frame was followed by a six-goal second half.