It sure looked like Ralston Valley’s boys soccer team was headed toward its third straight overtime game of the season Friday, Sept. 11.
However, Fairview had other intentions. The Knights scored a pair of goals in the final two minutes of regulation time to break the Mustangs’ string of playing overtime games and take a 4-2 victory at the North Area Athletic Complex.
Fairview senior Tim Jozwiak put in a header past Ralston Valley senior goalkeeper Dillon Lee in the 79th minute to break the 2-2 tie. The Knights added a goal from senior Darragh O’Neill with 4.1 seconds left in the game to pour some salt into the Mustangs’ wounds.
“It’s disappointing,” Lee said. “We fell apart in the end. We’ve got to fix that.”
It didn’t help the Mustangs’ cause that senior defender Connor Johnen missed the game because he received a red card in Ralston Valley’s previous game. Johnen was serving a one-game suspension because of the red card.
Lee kept Ralston Valley (0-1-2 record) in the game during the first half. Fairview had several good scoring opportunities while dominating possession in the first 20 minutes of the first half.
“Dillon made some insane saves,” Ralston Valley’s first-year coach Jeremy Vann said. “He is a great keeper and leader for us. It easily could have been 3-0 at halftime the way we were playing.”
Despite a sluggish start offensively for the Mustangs, senior Anthony Politano actually gave the Mustangs a 1-0 lead in the 26th minute.
Ralston Valley junior Fanuel Griffith-Jones was taken down in the Knights’ goalie box, giving Ralston Valley a penalty kick. Politano ripped the penalty kick past Fairview goalkeeper Louis Lish.
Politano scored his second goal of the game with a perfectly placed direct kick in the 75th minute.
“We have a lot of good players,” Vann said. “We just have to get it all together. We have the pieces.”
Ralston Valley finished one point out of the postseason last year in the Mustangs’ first season playing at the 5A level.