by Pat O'Malley
patomalleysports@aol.com
Lucky are those who experience a high school state championship and maybe even luckier are those who do it in their senior year when it's the first for their school.
Thus, is the story of the Tuscarora Titans boys' soccer team and their nine seniors who outlasted No. 6 Fallston in penalty kicks to win the Class 3A state championship Thursday evening at UMBC's Retriever Stadium. The Frederick County school won the shootout, 4-2, after 100 minutes of playing to a 1-1 tie in double overtime.
Losing Fallston coach Chris Hoover called it "a spectacular game,'' and "unfortunately as much as we train each day on penalty kicks, they were better on them.''
The Titans (10-6-2 overall) are state champions in only their fifth varsity season. They outlasted the favored Cougars (16-3) who were making their 12th trip to the state Final Four and their seventh time in the finals which they won back in 1992.
It's the memory of a lifetime for the Titans.
Senior Jaime Ramirez tallied the decisive goal to make it 4-2 Tuscarora and set off a wild celebration for Tuscarora, which opened its doors six years ago, and their faithful. In the shootout, each team takes turns to get five shots, but the Cougars missed their third and fourth attempts to shorten the rounds.
Ramirez game winner caromed off the right post and in to end it.
"It felt great,'' said Ramirez. "But I have to thank my teammates and our keeper [senior Mitch Kelman] who took a lot of pressure off me. This is something I will never forget.''
Tuscarora's Sean Duggan and Quinn Meehan matched goals by the Cougars' Dominic Welsh and Eric Croucher to start the shootout at 2-2. After a shot by Fallston's Mike Hamilton hit the crossbar, Ritchie Reyes gave the Titans a 3-2 lead. After Fallston's Darren Twanmoh's shot went over the cage, Ramirez delivered.
"It feels awesome, and I had confidence in myself and my teammates that we would get it done,'' said Titans goalie Mitch Kelman, who had eight saves on the night.
Welsh scored the only goal on Kelman in regulation. It was his 21st goal of the season and tied the game in the 24th minute after sophomore forward Michael Greene had given the Titans a 1-0 lead in the 10th minute. It was Greene's team leading seventh goal of the season.
Fallston failed to take advantage of several scoring opportunities in the second half. Christian Yarros and Will Pfang made outstanding defensive plays for the Titans in the final 12 minutes of regulation.
"Will (Pfang) runs our defense out there and his vocal leadership is vital to our success,'' said Tuscarora coach Marty Stiteler, who's guided the program since day one. "You can hear No. 7 [Pfang] all over the field communicating with our players.''
Kelman made a diving save on a shot by Derek Hyde with 32 seconds remaining sending the game into the two 10-minute overtime sessions.
"We got shots but didn't capitalize, '' said Hoover, who is 115-24-3 in his eight seasons. "Their keeper (Kelman) made some good saves and their defense overall was good.''
Tuscarora appeared to have a shot to win with 3:40 left in the second overtime, but a shot by Reyes hit his teammate Kevin Ruzbacki on the shoulder and caromed away. Fallston's goalie Kirk Fromille only had two saves.
Class 3A State Boys Soccer Championship
at UMBC
Tuscarora 2, Fallston 1
(Tuscarora wins on penalty kicks, 4-2)
Goals: Fallston-Welsh; Tuscarora-Greene. Saves: Fallston-Fromille 2; Tuscarora-Kelman 8.
Fallston 1 0 0 0-1
Tuscarora 1 0 0 0-1