‘Respect earned’ for CHS boys soccer team at state

OMAHA -- If a strategy works all season long, there’s no reason to change it up in the state tournament.

At least, that is the philosophy of the Columbus High boys soccer team.

The Discoverers, who had won eight games previously by the score of 1-0, defeated Lincoln East by the same score Thursday in the first round of the state tournament at Creighton University.

CHS head coach Jamie Bennett, who sported a new mohawk haircut for the amusement of his team, even predicted the 1-0 victory. Before the game, Bennett gave a folded piece of paper to senior Dustin Groteluschen and asked him to wear it inside his shinguard. During the celebration following the win, Bennett had Groteluschen extract the paper, and he revealed the words, “CHS stuns Lincoln East, 1-0. Respect earned!”

“I’ll take 1-0 every day as long as we’re on this side of it,” Bennett said.

In a physical game, full of steady runs by each team, senior Tony Linder came up with the big goal on the one play where one team truly outhustled the other. The Spartans had been on the attack in the 58th minute, with Brandon Videtich getting an open shot on CHS goalkeeper Tony Olvera. The shot was soft, however, and Olvera scooped it up easily and sent it long. The ball angled toward the far sideline and it appeared that it would go out of bounds for an East throw-in. The Spartan players stopped running, but not Linder. He sped up the sideline and the Discoverers caught a break as the wind kept the ball inbounds as it caught chalk on several bounces. Linder caught up to the ball and kept it alive, taking it downfield with two other Columbus players, facing only two defenders. Linder passed the ball forward to Groteluschen, who made a nice cross around the defender to Jacob Kloppel. Kloppel eased the ball forward into the penalty box to a hard charging Linder, who had never slowed down on the play. Linder was one-on-one with the goalie, who charged out to try and disrupt him, but Linder chipped the ball up over the keeper, and the shot angled down into the back of the net.

“I found myself in the right place,” Linder said. “Kloppel made a great cross and I was in the right spot. I just wanted to get a foot on it and hoped that it would go between the bars �” it was a rush.”

His coach was even happier, if possible, with the effort expended on the play.

“That goal was strictly hustle,” Bennett said. “We’ll probably never be the most skilled soccer team around, but if we play together as a team and hustle, we’ll do well.”

Following the goal, the Spartans attempted to speed up the game and press the attack. There were under 20 minutes to go in the contest, but East’s offense was going too fast and was sloppy. It was unable to get off any good shots for about 10 minutes.

Then things got a little too close for the liking of Columbus.

After a foul on CHS from around 35 yards out, East’s Taylor Biggs took the free kick and launched a beautiful shot up around the wall of defenders. The ball angled in toward the upper left of the Columbus goal, but at the last moment, Olvera leapt up and used his fist to bump the ball over the crossbar. If the jump hadn’t been timed perfectly, it would have been a sure thing for the Spartans to tie the game.

The close calls weren’t done yet, however, as Biggs got another chance moments later, this time much closer to the net. East received a corner kick following Olvera’s save, and the corner bounded over the first line of defenders, going right to Biggs, who was in wide open from 10 yards out. Olvera was on the other side of the net and had no time to recover. Biggs took the kick, but mishit it and the ball sailed well over the goal.

After that, CHS changed strategy and went on the attack. The Discoverers managed to keep the ball on the East side of the field for most of the rest of the game and the Spartans did not manage another shot on goal. The Columbus defense, which was on track the entire 80 minutes, cleared the ball every time East tried to push it and the clock wound out.

Early in the contest, play was dominated by East as the Spartans challenged the tough Discoverer defense right away. Only five minutes in, East ripped its best shot of the game, beating Olvera, but the shot hooked at the last second to clang away off the near side post. After that, Michael Ziola began to challenge every ball that came anywhere near him in the middle of the defense and, along with the rest of the defenders, shut down the Spartan attack.

CHS made a couple of runs in the middle of the first half, but had only four shots on goal before halftime, and a total of seven in the game. One shot nowhere near the goal, however, may have received the biggest response from the crowd. In the 20th minute, with Columbus got its first corner kick of the game. Gustavo Olvera found Groteluschen about thirty yards out, directly in front of the goal. Groteluschen never paused stride as he blasted the ball, which took off, launching about 30 feet into the air as it sailed out of the stadium, clearing both fences and making it into the parking lot.

Now that the Discoverers have topped East, they will face Creighton Prep, which defeated Omaha South 2-1 in overtime Thursday evening. Bennett said his squad will be ready.

“It’ll be some kind of duel,” he said. “We’ll have to play some really great defense.”

Lincoln East 0 0 - 0

Columbus (14-3) 0 1 - 1

# Goals - East: None; Columbus: Tony Linder.

# Assists - East: None; Columbus: Jacob Kloppel.

# Shots on goal - East 10, Columbus 7.

# Saves - East 4, Columbus 9.