Junior midfielder Grant Bauer fought through the Althoff defense with 10 minutes remaining in Wednesday’s match and put a shot on goal that was turned away. The ball bounced around among the group of players battling in the penalty area. Bauer ended up on the ground.
Suddenly, the ball fell at Bauer’s feet. He managed to get himself upright enough to knock the ball into the back of the net, securing the Kahoks boys soccer team a draw in a game that they at first seemed destined to win, then destined to lose.
Collinsville (0-1-1) jumped out to a 1-0 lead against the Crusaders (0-0-1) when senior forward Alex Lamoreaux knocked in a cross from senior midfielder Cody Sanftleben less than seven minutes into the match.
The lead did not last long. At the 15-minute mark of the first half, Althoff sophomore Donovan Gagen beat freshman goalkeeper Brett Niedzwiecki on a penalty kick. It was the first of two penalty kick goals for Gagen, who had a hat trick on the day.
The penalty kick goals killed the Kahoks’ momentum, Head Coach Myles Hensler said. “When you go up 1-0 in the first 10 minutes, the boys are on a high, then you give up a PK and it changes the whole thing,” Hensler said. “Then we do it again later.”
Before Gagen tied the game on another penalty kick, Sanftleben had given the Kahoks their second and final lead of the match when he took a pass from Bauer and, with a flick of his ankle, dropped a shot over the head of Althoff goalkeeper Max Orlet.
Gagen scored the final goal of a frenzied first half when senior defender Brendan Belobraydic went to the ground while defending Gagen, who promptly beat Niedzwiecki to the far corner. Despite Gagen’s three-goal performance, Hensler said he was defended well.
“For the most part, Belo (Belobraydic) played well against him,” Hensler said. “He got the two goals on the penalty kicks and then Belo got pushed down – or fell down, whatever you want to call it – and he knocked it in.”
When the sickly sounding horn on the field behind Althoff CatholicHigh School moaned out to signal the end of the half, the Kahoks trailed the Crusaders 3-2.
Both teams maintained a high level of intensity in the second half despite the heat – the game time temperature was 95 – but neither team could find the back of the net. It looked like the Kahoks were going to be saddled with their second defeat to open the season until Bauer’s tying goal with 10 minutes remaining.
Collinsville will try to notch their first win of the season when they play matches on three consecutive days next week. They host Belleville West Tuesday and Highland on Wednesday. Both matches kick off at 6:45 p.m. at Kahoks Stadium and can be seen live on Kahoksports.com. Collinsville travels to Christian Brothers High School to play a 6:45 match Thursday.
