Triad Knights soccer moves to 10-6-1

By Anthony Jones

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TROY — Triad boys soccer continued to march through the tailend of their regular season schedule last week, arriving at a record of 10-6-1.

The Knights’ busy week began on Oct. 7 with a trip to Rochester. The Rockets, who defeated Triad 1-0 in last season’s matchup, held an 8-7-1 mark headed into the non-conference matchup.

Scoring the game’s first goal was Triad’s Joey Bohnak, who delivered an early tally with a left-footed boot just past the goaltender. His 1-0 lead earning strike came in the match’s 11th minute.

The Knights held onto their lead for most of the night but in the 68th minute, a Rocket breakaway resulted in a late equalizer.

Triad regained the lead with under five minutes to play, however, as Lance Stauffer missiled a direct freekick from just beyond the 18 yard box on the left wing just inside the far post. The senior’s score pushed the visitors ahead 2-1, which proved to be the final score.

Courtlan Dellamano recorded the win in net for the Knights.

Triad returned to action the following evening to host Mascoutah. Their meeting served as a pivotal Mississippi Valley Conference matchup, as the Knights led the league with a 6-0 conference record and the Indians stood in second 4-2 against conference foes.

Mascoutah struck first in the affair, as they converted a corner kick into a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute. The Knights equalized less than four minutes later when a TJ Allison cross set up Stauffer for a 12 yard blast into the net.

With just over three minutes remaining in the first half, the Indians once again took the lead after a breakaway counter attack.

The game’s next score came in the 67th minute. The score, a Triad equalizer, belonged to Reid Heffren who launched a 22 yard strike for a 2-2 tie.

Mascoutah responded with two minutes to play on a throw-in sequence that saw the ball ricochet throughout the box before Jayden Wilkinson knocked the ball over the goalline. His late score went down as a game winner in the 3-2 final.

Two days later the Knights traveled to Waterloo for another key conference matchup. The Bulldogs entered the affair with a 5-2 league mark. 

In the game’s 8th minute, a Stauffer throw-in set up an early Triad lead. His launch was headed by Eli Noonan, bounced off a defender and then arrived at Aiden Novich, who booted it out of the air and to the back of the net.

Later in the 36th minute, Triad struck again on an airborne ball. Their second score of the affair came on a Jacob Dulaney free kick that flew 40 yards through the air before Brayden Kelly headed it past Waterloo’s keeper.

The final 44 minutes proved scoreless as the Knights held on for a 2-0 victory. Dellamano recorded the shutout in net.

Triad played their fourth game in five days on Oct. 12, as they hosted St. Louis University High School.

Neither team had a promising shot on target until the 27th minute, when the Junior Billikens buried a mid-range shot to go ahead 1-0.

Their early score served as a turning point after a balanced start to the affair. Within 11 minutes of their first tally, the visitors had nabbed a 4-0 edge.

“We gave up a goal and then all of a sudden, we had our heads down and gave up another goal. We just don’t respond well when we give up a goal,” Coach Jim Jackson spoke of the four goal sequence.

Triad closed the gap to 4-1 early in the second half on a Colby Wheat strike off an assist from Kelly.

The rest of the scoring belonged to the Junior Billikens, who won in a 7-1 final.

Triad has two remaining regular season matches: Oct. 15 at Civic Memorial and Oct. 17 versus Jersey.

For the Knights to guarantee an outright Mississippi Valley Conference title, they need to win both of those contests.

Coach Jackson previewed the first of those two matchups, “Civic has two kids that are in the top 10 scoring in the area, even though they don’t have a sexy record. We were down 1-0 against them here and now we’ve got to go play at their place. They have a good crowd there usually, so we’ve got to come out and be ready to play. We need to finish the season strong and go into the playoffs positively.”