By Phil Murphy
Senior Multimedia/Content Editor
Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area
Additional Multimedia By:
Jeffery Gibert and Sam Briggs
West
Potomac Students, DigitalSports Interns
*Click the links at the top left for all photos and videos*
Through 76 minutes on Senior Night, South County’s match with visiting Lake Braddock seemed destined to have a storybook ending for Stallion outside midfielder Max Kleess.
Scoring the game’s only goal in the 17th minute in front of the best scoring defense in the Northern Region: Check.
Successful pre-game prom proposal to fellow senior Julia Ledwith: Check-plus.
Bruin senior Emmanuel Kassim equalizing in the 77th minute to wipe it all out: Check, please.
After 10 minutes of end-to-end play in extra time, the goal by the Lake Braddock captain was all that stood in the way of a perfect night for South County and its Duquesne-bound captain, as the Bruins and Stallions played to a 1-1 draw on Tuesday.
“A player on our high school team did that two years ago,” said Kleess of his prom request, which was aired during the pre-game Senior Night ceremony. “And it’s nice to have a scoreboard like that, so that worked out nice.
“I kind of tried extra hard to score the goal, just so it would make it more special. But it would’ve been better if we won. That would’ve perfected it, especially when it’s Senior Night.”
Kleess put the Stallions on the board when a South County counter-attack gave it numbers in the Lake Braddock defensive third.
Stallion sophomore Zach Crandall played a cross into the mixer, where senior Matt Karwel headed it back to Kleess, who was just outside of the 18.
Kleess settled, played the ball one step to his right and situated his shot perfectly inside the right upper-90.
But South County could not extend its lead and, although Lake Braddock was held without a scoring chance for the majority of the second half, Kassim equalized off a loose ball following a free kick by Bruin junior Neil Seng.
“The defense was stepping up and I knew I just had to stay on-side,” said Kassim, who plays club ball for MPS ’91 Premier. “I saw our outside left back, Tyler Dunn, get the ball and I noticed that he saw me.
“I just had to be on-side to make sure my run was perfect. Everything just clicked. I ran through, the ball came to me at the right time, I took it off my right thigh, took a touch, picked my spot and just put it in.”
In the two five-minute, silver-goal extra periods, each side found scoring chances, but neither could take the advantage.
South County keeper Javier Hernandez and Lake Braddock goalie Joe Conte held the game all-square, a result that kept the Stallions and Bruins frozen atop the Patriot District standings.
For the two captains, the result yielded a mixture of disappointment in missed chances and satisfaction, given their opponent’s respective reputation around the region.
“Offense is always the best defense,” said Kleess, a member of Team America Premier ’91 club team. “We didn’t do that. We should’ve gotten our defense up faster … We can’t give up those late goals.
“I feel like we have easily one of the best keepers in the region — you guys have seen, he has eight shutouts. We need to keep it up defensively and we need to finish more. In the second half of the overtime, when we actually pressured when we had to, we got opportunities.”
Added Kassim: “We could’ve clinched first place in the district with a win in this game. A tie doesn’t help us at all, but we’ll take what we can get.”
Email: pmurphy@digitalsports.com
Lake Braddock 0 1 0 0 — 1
No. 9 South County 1 0 0 0 — 1
Goals:
SC — Kleess (17)
LB — Kassim (77)
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