As the sectional tournament is underway this week, both the Tippecanoe Red Devils and Tecumseh Arrows wrapped up the CBC boys’ soccer regular season last week with a CBC showdown in Tipp City.
The Red Devils jumped out to a comfortable halftime lead, then coasted to a 7-0 win over the Arrows.
“It was a big game for us, there is always a good rivalry between us, it was fast paced and physical,” Tippecanoe coach Scott Downing said. “We had a lot of energy in the first half, and created a lot of chances. We weren’t keeping possession as much as I would have liked. We focused on that at halftime and played with more composure in the second half.”
Peyton Smith scored the first goal of the game for the Red Devils, with the assist coming from Collin Tateman. Andrew DeBrosse also scored two goals in the opening half, with the fourth coming from Kevin Bridget. Assists came from Wade Timmer, Adam Grieshop and Mitch Colvin.
In the second half, Zach Bonifas scored to make it 5-0 with the assist going to Alex Rittenhouse, while Dylan Shomper added a sixth goal with help from Colvin. To wrap up the scoring, Tateman hit a free kick from the 18 bending just in the upper 90 for the score.
“After our game last year (where Tecumseh defeated Tippecanoe 1-0), we came out and played the hardest I have ever seen this team play and came out with a loss,” Downing said. “We were young and Tecumseh had 16 seniors. One of our goals this year was even though we won the league, we talked a a few games ago about being 11-0, and the kids were focused on that.”
Tippecanoe returns to the field on Saturday, if they defeated Dunbar last night in the first round of the tournament. They would play this Saturday at home, 2 p.m. against the winner of Valley View or Chaminade Julienne.
Tecumseh also played last night in the opening round at Wayne, and if the Arrows were victorious, they would return to action on Saturday night either at Sidney or Bellefontaine at 7 p.m.
*Also last week, the Bethel boys’ soccer team defeated Tecumseh 4-3 on the Bees’ Senior Night. Tecumseh scored first when Brandon Thomas scored on a 30-yard shot over the head of the Bees keeper to put the Arrows up 1-0. Bethel evened the score when Sam McKenny hit Zach Cohee in stride and he tied the game. The Arrows took the lead right before the half when James Gray scored from 25-yards out to take a 2-1 lead into the intermission.
Bethel came out in the second half, as nine minutes in, Tyler Brueckman passed to Evan Hawthorn who gave it right back for a shot that tied the game at two. Brueckman added another goal to give Bethel a 3-2 lead, but Thomas came back and tied the game again. With just under two minutes left, Cohee scored with 1:40 left to give the Bees the deciding goal.
