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| Tribe wins 7th straight district soccer title |
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10/20/2017
By Dan Manley
Advocate Sports Editor
Winning never gets old, it gets contagious.
Montgomery County High School boys’ soccer coach Nick Pannell has 14 freshmen on this year’s squad.
He can already tell that those guys are thinking about district tournaments in the future.
“Those guys don’t want to be a part of a team that breaks the streak,” Pannell said. “That’s something that can happen any year, but it’s great to have players that feel pride in the program. In their minds, they are already thinking about trying to keep the streak alive and I think that just makes them work that much harder.”
The hard work for the Indians paid off once again last week as the Indians beat the Bourbon County Colonels, 2-0, Thursday night at Cunningham Field, to win their seventh consecutive 39th district title and their eighth in the last nine years.
“Clark County and Bourbon County have really solid programs so to keep winning titles year after year, well, I think it says a lot about our program,” Pannell added.
Bourbon County last won the district title back in 2010 and Clark County last claimed a district crown in 2007.
The Montgomery County streak stretches all the way back to when they played in the 24th District and battled Harrison County and Pendleton County in addition to Clark, Bourbon and Paris.
With wins over Paris (7-0) and Bourbon County last week the Indians played their way into the 10th Region Tournament this week at Campbell County.
The tournament opened up Monday night.
With six teams in the tournament (three districts) two of the district winners earned opening round byes.
Montgomery County and Campbell County drew the byes.
The tournament opened Monday night with Bourbon County taking on Pendleton County and Bishop Brossart going against Harrison County.
On Wednesday night, Campbell County was scheduled to play the Bourbon-Pendleton winner at 6 p.m. with Montgomery County going up against the Bishop Brossart-Harrison County winner at 7:45 p.m.
The 10th Region championship match will be played at Campbell County at noon on Saturday.
“We’re in the region and we’re absolutely going in to win the tournament,” said Pannell.
Montgomery County has played three of the five other teams in the region, having defeated Bourbon County twice and Pendleton County, 2-0, early in the season.
The Indians lost to Campbell County, 2-1, back on Sept. 12 at Cunningham Field.
The Tribe did not face Harrison County or Bishop Brossart during the regular season.
The Indians enter the regional with the best record in the field at 15-7 while Campbell County stands 13-6.
Bishop Brossart was 8-9-2 and Harrison County 5-11-2 entering Monday’s matchup.
“Bishop Brossart looks like a team that has been really good or they haven’t played real well,” Pannell explained of the Tribe’s next potential opponent.
They were throttled by Lexington Dunbar, 8-0, and since that time have gone 4-2-1 and played really solid defense, losing to Campbell County just 1-0 in the district final.
Although Harrison County has won just one match since back on Aug. 29, that being a win over Mason County in the district semifinals, they lost by a 2-1 score to Pendleton County in the district final.
“Once you get to this point you know that anyone can knock you off and you just have to try and be at the top of your game,” noted Pannell. “The key for us could be how our young players adjust to the kind of environment we’ll be in because it’ll be something new for them.”
MCHS 2, Bourbon County 0
The Colonels shocked Clark County in the semifinals and certainly showed a much stronger game last week in the district finals than when they met the Indians during the regular season.
Montgomery County won the earlier meeting, 8-0, but despite controlling the game with more than 60 percent possession time, the Indians struggled to get the ball in the net.
Trey Dice scored on a free kick in the first half with what proved to be all of the offense the Indians needed.
Montgomery County held that lead at halftime and with about 20 minutes to play in the match, Klae Wilson scored to give the Tribe the cushion it needed to secure another district title.
“We’re talking about a district championship game so emotions are a lot different,” said Pannell. “Even though the score was a lot different than during the regular season, we still played well.”
Montgomery County did miss some scoring opportunities.
Danny Hernandez was in goal for the shutout.
“Our entire defensive unit is really playing well right now,” Pannell added.
Senior midfielder Brogan Dice, out for a couple of weeks because of a concussion, returned in the championship game.
“He’s a veteran and he didn’t miss a beat coming back into the lineup,” Pannell said.
During his absence, freshman Pruitt Lansdale logged additional playing time and the experience he gained gives the Indians a greater amount of depth going into the regional tournament.
MCHS 7, Paris 0
The Indians were in control from the opening bell in their semifinal round matchup.
Klae Wilson led the Indians with a hat trick while Ian King scored a pair of goals and Daniel Shelton and Mason Anderson had one goal each.
Pannell was able to clear his bench in the second half and give his reserves some district tournament experience.
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