HAMBURG — Grand Island’s season sat on a knife’s edge midway through the second half.
With the score 2-2, a lengthy injury stoppage following an International Prep goal gave the No. 2 Vikings a chance to catch their breath and regroup. After the stoppage, they came out and got a 6-2 win over top seeded International Prep, Friday, at Hamburg’s Howe Field in the Section VI Class A1 championship game.
“It’s reminding them that the mindset doesn’t change,” Grand Island head coach Bobby Ross said. “Things happen in the game of sport. … You’re gonna face adversity in life and how are you able to keep moving forward and I think the boys responded with absolute class and we were able to get a quick goal and another quick goal and capitalize on our play.”
The Vikings opened the scoring five minutes into the game when Ognjen Ristic scored to make it 1-0. The Presidents had multiple wide open net chances in the early going before the team traded goals late in the half to send the game into the half with Grand Island up 2-1.
The score stayed that way until there was 33:23 to go in the game when the I-Prep’s leading scorer Baundoin Sefu Bin Kitenge scored to tie the game up at two. But the goal came at a cost as the I-Prep striker and Grand Island goalkeeper Ayden Haseley collided, sending Bin Kitenge down to the turf, where he suffered a broken leg and had to be stretchered off and left the stadium in an ambulance.
“These are children at the end of the day and they watch one of their friends get seriously hurt on the soccer field,” I-Prep coach Andrew Franz said. “Certainly we were upset. … The final score does not reflect I think the distance between these two teams.”
After the stoppage, Ristic came to life, scoring two of Grand Island’s four goals and finished the game with four himself, a new career-high. Ristic is no stranger to playoff success after scoring the game-winner to beat Lew-Port in double-overtime of the Class A crossover game last year.
“We knew we were going to have a chance with one of those through balls,” Ross said. “We have another great striker up top, Auggie, who played well in that Will South game and it was only a matter of time until he broke that line. They kind of got us out of our game … we don’t like to be that big direct team but when the chances are there you know, obviously you want to send it to the guy who’s got a hot foot in this playoff and he was able to put it away.”
The Vikings will now look to advance to the Far West Regional when they take on East Aurora at 6 p.m. on Monday. Earlier this season, the Vikings and East Aurora faced off, with East Aurora getting a 4-2 win.
“It was so early in the season but teams change, formations change and guys really find their way in the roster and how they’re playing,” Ross said. “We have a young, young team … We are a different team when we played East Aurora.”