New Kent falls just short of gaining second district win

New Kent’s Gunner Gilland manages a header before Bruton’s Evan Albrecht came do the same over the back.

Alan Chamberlain photo

Seven goals registered on the scoreboard in the first 13 minutes highlighted New Kent’s Bay Rivers District home soccer finale with Bruton’s Panthers. But the scoring pace dropped off dramatically thereafter.

Unfortunately for the hosts, the Panthers held a 4-3 advantage after the early smoke cleared and held on to that one goal margin, escaping with a 5-4 win. The May 10 outcome denied New Kent’s bid for a second district win, dropping the Trojans to 1-8 in the district and 6-9-1 overall.

“If we could have won, that would have put us in the district tournament, but I’m sure that knocks us out of it,” said New Kent coach Clinton Leckie afterward.

“Things started out really well for us,” he said, looking back at the Trojans’ 5-0 start, all against non-district competition.

“We lost our organization on defense in the middle and later part of the season,” he said. “I thought we would win three or four district games this season and make the district tournament, but we just didn’t do it.”

Bruton opened the scoring on a penalty kick just one minute into the contest. Two minutes later, however, Gunner Gilland drilled an open shot past Panther keeper Zach Ellis for a 1-1 tie.

Another two minutes elapsed before Gilland handed New Kent a 2-1 lead, but over the next eight minutes, Bruton scored three unanswered goals to mount a 4-2 advantage. New Kent pulled back within one on Matt Thomas’ open shot with 27 minutes left in the first half.

The score remained unchanged until 11 minutes into the second half when Bruton’s Josh Coperan launched a header past Trojan keeper Jay Barbour. New Kent again closed within one as Barbour’s booming kick out of New Kent territory found Gilland. As Ellis rushed out to challenge, Gilland drove his third goal into the net to make it a 5-4 contest.

“We had three or four more opportunities in the second half that we should have had,” said Leckie, adding, “Shoulda, coulda, didn’t.”