Wednesday, October 27, 1999
CovCath wins regional soccer
Colonels stun Highlands with defense
BY MARK SCHMETZER
Enquirer contributor
Longtime Covington Catholic soccer coach John Horton predicted before the season that it might take the entire regular season for him to find a defense that works.
He knows his soccer. He didn't find the final piece of the puzzle until there were two games left in the season. That's when he installed 6-foot-3 junior Brian Thaman as the starting goalkeeper.
The move has paid off. Thaman, who shut out Bishop Brossart in the Region 14 semifinals Monday night, came back Tuesday night and posted 12 saves to lead the Colonels to a 1-0 upset of Highlands to win the regional championship.
CovCath (16-5) will play the winner of tonight's Boone County-St.Henry Region 13 championship game in a sectional semifinal on the Region 13 champion's home field. The game will be Friday or Saturday.
Highlands (21-2) fell short in its bid to capture its first regional championship since 1988.
CovCath junior forward Matt Arnzen scored 6:35 into the second half. Arnzen lined a right-footed shot into the lower left corner of the goal off a corner throw-in by Mike Weckenbrock.
“I just kind of stepped out there and waited for it to come out,” the 5-7 Arnzen said. “I'm too short to head the ball. I got a good line on it, I guess.
“This game was huge,” Arnzen added. “They beat us in the regular season 2-1. That was the first game of the season, and it was a great game. We've improved a lot since then.”
Said Horton: “We like to describe him as pesky. He harasses the defense. You can't make a pass around him.”
Arnzen's goal was all the CovCath defense needed. Thaman made several saves on corner kicks and keyed an aggressive, physical defense that was able to frustrate a Bluebirds attack that maintained pressure for much of the game.
“I was a little nervous at first,” said Thaman, who missed most of the season with a hip injury and earned his shot when senior Dick Dietz suffered a broken foot late in the season. “Once I made a few plays, I loosened up. I knew they would try to come in with their corner kicks. I had to be big.”
“He's got the wingspan of a condor,” Horton said. “He can get up and get those nice, long arms on the ball.”
The Colonels have won 14 of their last 15 games, primarily because of the development of their defense.
“We had a lot of very new faces on defense,” said Horton, whose Colonels lost in the state finals last year. “They had a lot to learn. We got burned a lot early. It was rough going for a while. We were 2-4 at one point.
“Defense is so important in the tournament. It's been a long learning process for us.”
“That's disappointing,” Highlands coach Bill Robinson said of being shut out, especially after beating Holy Cross 7-0 in Monday's other Region 14 semifinal. “No disrespect to CovCath, but we lost (senior midfielder) Colin Muehlenkamp (with a possible concussion) early. He was big for us this year.”
GIRLS SOCCER: Ashley Noll scored four minutes into the game, and Holy Cross cruised to 6-0 victory over Villa Madonna in a Fifth Region game at Scott. The Indians stretched the lead to 4-0 by halftime.
“We never played Villa and didn't know what to expect,” Holy Cross coach Dave Reynolds said. “We knew they had the region's top scorer in Jackie Tetzel.”
The Indians played tough defense, with fullbacks Julie Willems and Meghan Flesch leading the way.
Natalie Gardner stopped two shots for her sixth shutout, a state record. Holy Cross has 15 shutouts on the season, which ranks third in state history.
Holy Cross will face Ryle in the regional semifinal Thursday night at Scott. Ryle beat Bishop Brossart 1-0 in a shootout.
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