The Hopkinsville Tigers scored twice in the final 5 minutes of play and held off a feisty Fort Campbell squad 4-3 Wednesday night in a boys’ District 8 soccer match at the Stadium of Champions.
With the match tied 2-2, Hoptown freshman Jason Macario scored his second goal of the night under pressure from a Falcons defender for a 3-2 lead with 5 minutes remaining in the match.
Less than 2 minutes later, sophomore Mikel Ramirez converted a penalty kick into a 4-2 lead. The play was set up by a penalty in the scoring box by Fort Campbell (0-1, 0-1).
That score ended up being the deciding goal, as the Falcons’ Chase Cribbett scored on a corner kick with 1:30 to play drawing Fort Campbell to within 4-3.
The Tigers were able to hang on the rest of the way to improve to 1-1 on the season and 1-0 in district play.
Fort Campbell shocked the Tigers early as Matteo Cerritos Gatto found the back of the net in the 5th minute.
However, junior Alex Ramirez tied the game 1-1 in the 8th minute. Macario added his first goal of the night in the 38th minute to give Hoptown a 2-1 advantage.
“I’m just glad we didn’t give up and hang our heads after the first goal,” Hopkinsville coach Aaron Hutchinson said. “It was good they kept fighting.”
The Tigers, who had been outscored 15-0 in the final scrimmage and first game of the season, controlled the ball more in the second half.
“At halftime we told the guys to quit playing the ball down the middle so much since they were packing the middle,” Hutchinson said. “We wanted to try to get the ball away from their center backs and try to draw them away from the goal by getting out wide.”
Hopkinsville returns to action at noon Saturday against Logan County at the Stadium of Champions.
