Crawfordsville’s boys soccer team’s goal of winning the Sagamore Conference took a setback with a 2-1 loss to defending champion Frankfort.
The Athenians, who lost to the Hot Dogs in a tournament two weeks ago by the identical score, were on the short end of an aggressive, chippy game.
There were only three yellow cards issued in a penalty-filled match, but there were many stoppages for a foul.
In fact, the rivalry nature of the matchup between the two squads carried over after the match, when there were some words and comments in the handshake line.
The Athenians fall to 4-1 in the conference with the loss, and 5-4 overall, while Frankfort moves to 2-0 in Sagamore play and 5-2 on the season. It was a match where both teams knew that the road to a possible conference title had to include beating the guys on the other end of the pitch.
“It was a tough game,” Crawfordsville coach Marcus Hale said. “It was good hard competition. We competed hard and had more opportunities in the second half, but Frankfort is technically good, and their pressure bothered us a bit.”
The Athenians didn’t get the offensive chances they normally get, and much of that was due not to the Hot Dogs aggressive style of play, but to their ability to keep control of the ball, as their short passing game kept the ball away from the Crawfordsville scorers.
The visitors got the only goal of the first half, much of which was played in either a drizzle or pouring rain. A turnover deep in the defensive zone gave Frankfort’s Daniel Bustos-Duarte a clear path to the net. Athenians goal keeper Alec Saidian stopped the first point-blank shot, but not the rebound.
Duarte would score the game-winner in the second half, when he took a long pass through the zone from Armondo Munoz Guitierrez.
That goal came with 37:03 left, less than two minutes after Crawfordsville’s Jaziel Gil-Herrera dropped a rainbow free kick from 45 yards out behind Frankfort goalie Alex Flores.
The home team nearly tied the match on another long Herrera free kick in the last minutes, but a close offside call took away the goal. One other close call a few minutes earlier saw Patrick Corado hit the cross bar with a shot.
“The rain makes for more slipping and the ball skips more,” Hale said of the conditions. “The referee called a really tight game, and that eats a lot of time off the clock.”
The championship-caliber play, and all the chippiness that went with it, was rooted in more than one match, according to Hale
“This has turned into a generational rivalry,” he said. “There are dads and uncles and maybe some grandads from both towns who have been playing against each other for a long time. Both teams are good, and they go at it hard.”
Saidian faced 11 shots, while Flores saw eight. Herrera’s goal is his fourth of the season.
Both teams have non-conference action next.
The Hot Dogs are at home Saturday versus Faith Christian while the Athenians have a home match against Benton Central on Monday.
