BY MATTHEW SHAWLEY
BEDFORD — North Star’s season of promise came to an abrupt halt as the Cougars fell 2-1 to Fannett-Metal in a District 5 soccer semifinal on Tuesday.
The third-seeded Tigers will advance to their first District 5 title game.
Fannett-Metal coach Greg Best was happy to see his squad finally earn a berth in the title match.
“We’ve been in the semifinals three years in a row and lost the last two times, so we were fortunate to make it back and come out with the win (Tuesday night),” he said.
Neither team had a clear advantage through the majority of the opening half. North Star finally was able to break the deadlock with 40 seconds left in the half when Joe Zimmerman tracked down a cross from Jurian Cortese and fired a shot past Brandon Adams.
Zimmerman’s goal gave the Cougars a 1-0 lead at halftime, but Fannett-Metal wouldn’t fade quietly into the night.
In the 51st minute, Fannett-Metal’s Eric Foy broke free from the defense and beat North Star goalkeeper Clayton Shaffer for the equalizer.
“We’ve been down in a lot of games this year at halftime, and we always seem to find a way to come out on top,” Best said.
Following Foy’s goal, the two sides swapped opportunities in an attack-counterattack chess match that played out for most of the second half.
Colton Bair delivered the decisive strike for Fannett-Metal with 20 minutes to play, heading the ball over Shaffer as he came out of the net to challenge.
“Their striker won a 50-50 ball and got a goal out of it,” North Star coach Chad Duryea said. “I think the story of (the) night was 50-50 balls. They have some big guys that can jump, and that really elevated their game. It put a hinder on us and kept us from getting our possession game going.”
For Duryea, his team’s turnaround from a season ago has been remarkable.
“For this team to go from 6-11-1 last season to 15-3, I’m definitely proud of them,” he said.
