The goal that wasn’t. Hidden by a South point defender, North Adams’ Gage White seems to have gotten the ball past the goal line but the officials disagreed and disallowed the score as the Devils eventually fell 1-0 to South Point in a Division III district semifinal contest. (Photo by Tim Daulton)
Devils fall 1-0 in district semis
North Adams senior Gage White, left, battles for possession with a South Point opponent during the Devils’ 1-0 loss on October 25. (Photo by Tim Daulton)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Division III district semifinal action awaited Coach Kirk Bunn and his North Adams Green Devils boys soccer squad on October 25 as the Devils ventured to the turf at Zane Trace High School to battle the South Point Pointers for the right to advanced to the district title contest. It was two evenly matched teams playing their hearts out and only one goal was scored in the entire 80 minutes, and unfortunately that belonged to the Pointers as they hung on for a 1-0 victory.
The Pointers picked up that goal in the first half but that wasn’t the story. Also in that first half, the Devils apparently had a goal scored from close range, only to have the officials wave it off, though it seemed that the ball had easily crossed the goal line before being controlled by the South Point goalkeeper.
“I was happy with the way we played,” said Coach Bunn. “The boys followed our game plan and played the style that I wanted to see all year long. If the referees had been competent, we may have won the game 1-0. The South Point goal was scored after an obvious hand ball and our defense stopped play. We tell them to play until the whistle but they didn’t and it was our mistake.”
With the loss the Devils finished their 2023 season with an overall mark of 13-6 and ended in a three-way tie for first place in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference, then added a Division III sectional crown with a shutout win over Portsmouth.
“this season was very good but somewhat frustrating,” added Coach Bunn, “Five of our losses were by one goal and we didn’t play particularly well in any of those games and could very well have come into this game with just one loss.”
The loss to South point was also the final game in the high school careers of a trio of seniors- Cody Hesler, Easton Daulton and Gage White. Hesler was the team’s leading goal scorer with 20 while White was close behind with 18, Daulton, in his first year of high school soccer, became a dependable goalkeeper, with four clean sheets to his credit.
” Our seniors will be hard to replace,” said Coach Bunn. “They were our power up front and a good goalie. Next year we will definitely have to move personnel around but we still should be very strong. We began this season with only five players who had played more than one year in high school so we are still pretty young and should be competitive for several more years to come.”
