Howard boys soccer falls to West Laurens in playoffs

DEXTER – Howard’s boys soccer team didn’t let any of the eight matches it lost this year get away by any margin bigger than three goals.

So it was fitting that the same number decided its rematch with West Laurens Wednesday in the first round of the 3A state playoffs, as the Huskies once again lived up to a season-long reputation for hanging around that held true both times the region rivals met in the regular season.

A tiebreaking Raider goal with about three minutes to go left them stunned in a 2-1 loss in their first meeting Feb. 12. Last month, West Laurens won in slightly more convincing fashion, but still needed a trifecta of second-half goals to seal its 3-1 victory in Macon to remain undefeated.

Howard, which finished outside the region’s top four but qualified at-large to gain the 30th of 32 seeds in the bracket, did more to prove its worthiness in the same type of battle.

But the unyielding Raiders found ways to capitalize at a few more key moments, and grind out a 3-0 win.

The match threatened to complete a half with no score, but West Laurens got the break, and breakthrough, it was waiting on near the 10-minute mark.

The rest of the night, continuing with add-on goals early in the second, proceeded gradually in the Raiders’ direction.

“I was really proud of the persistence,” said Howard head coach Russell Stephenson. “We didn’t give up when they got one. We didn’t give up when they got two. We kept going.”

The Huskies played the same type of pesky defense that kept West Laurens from shaking them off in either of the first two games, and confirmed why the once-beaten 4-3A champions (19-1, 13-1 region) were less than thrilled to draw a rematch for their postseason debut.

“For us, it’s really all about the tempo of the game. If we can get tempo, that helps,” said Raiders head coach Nate Smith. “That’s one of the things that they’re really good at taking away is our tempo. We tried to do a few different attacking styles that worked, but we didn’t capitalize on it too much. Some of it was just straight hustle, too.

“They’re a good team. To have to play them a third time kind of sucked.”

Howard stacked its defenders deep on the back end, and dug them in hard to weather a lengthy West Laurens siege that followed an early sortie into the home half just off the opening kick.

The Huskies’ determination to give nothing up was so resolute that their midfielder Waki Kiza — in one instance — would voice frustration at having to send a throw-in toward his own goal with no teammates willing to yield their position to run upfield after the Raiders lost a ball out of bounds.

Howard goalkeeper Eduardo Leiva secured or knocked away most every airborne ball that was up for heads in the box off of crosses, corners or throws.

West Laurens’ best chances came when it lured the Huskies’ back liners a good ways upfield in hopes of drawing an offside flag on the inevitable long passes to speedsters who timed things up perfectly, but were off the mark on shots that mostly flew high and rattled the football goalposts.

The Huskies were on track to keep the board blank through the half, and would have if not for a hiccup with about 10 minutes to go.

A simple oversight opened the door wide for the Raiders as Leiva handled a routine save. Assuming the coast was clear, the senior dropped the ball with intent to kick it away without noticing a late-closing West Laurens defender who charged in with designs on pulling a fast one.

Leiva, in a bind, opted to dive and cover the ball back up, inadvertently committing soccer’s equivalent of a double-dribble.

“The keeper can’t grab it, drop it and then pick it up again all in the same motion,” Smith said. “It’s got to touch somebody else in between the two things.”

The situation resulted in a rarely seen free kick from point-blank range, as officials — following a short conference to confirm that a Raider had not in fact touched the ball — placed it at the spot of the violation near the penalty kick hash.

Howard, which was free to obstruct the shooting line, arranged every defender possible a step in front of the goal line. But the Raiders solved the puzzle by tapping the ball a few yards to the right with their initial touch, creating an alternate angle for Jack Yearwood, who thumped it straight into the net.

The Huskies’ unrelenting defense, which continued to the final whistle, made them tough to put away.

Howard put several shots on goal that West Laurens keeper R.T. Gilder took care of with no problem in a balanced first few minutes out of the halftime retreat. But the Raiders got it back down to the other end in no time.

They struck again after a few missed chances when Yearwood played a long one into the box for Joe Powell, who put one back after his initial kick from just in front of the net rebounded off of Leiva’s hands. He got the second try by him to make the lead 2-0.

Momentum was slowly tipping, but didn’t tumble as Howard clung to a bit of remaining life, and held off the Raiders’ efforts to add on for about 10 more minutes. Dalton Oxford connected on a shot from straight away, about 20 yards out, to put the match in hand.

The Huskies, coming up empty on a few final chances, were unable to get a late consolation goal as the game brought an end to their strongest season (10-8, 7-7 region 4-AAA) in a decade, and a memorable one for this team that can take pride in having stuck it out long enough to become a first for the program since 2016 to reach the playoffs.

“This means a lot to us,” said Stephenson, who was a member of the school’s next-to-last club before this one to advance in 2014. “It’s the first time in a long time for Howard. We wanted to try to take it as far as we could. We didn’t want this season to end.”