Arcadia falls late against state champs
Hugo Hernandez of Arcadia shot toward the goal during the Raiders' 1-0 loss to Prairie in the WIAA Division Three State Semifinal in Kewaskum on Saturday. (Times photograph by Zac Bellman)
Bill Breska of Arcadia leaped for a header attempt during the Raiders' 1-0 loss to Prairie in the WIAA Division Three State Semifinal in Kewaskum on Saturday. (Times photograph by Zac Bellman)
A tap-in put The Prairie School ahead late as the Arcadia soccer team’s season came to an end in the semifinal round of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association State Championships.
The Raiders had battled the Hawks, who were state runners-up in 2019, for the first 86 minutes, but with the clock showing 86:14, Daniel Dreifuerst was able to dribble the ball into the net off of an assist by Cameron McPhee to put his team ahead. The Raiders had a free kick attempt to tie the match in the 89th minute, but came up empty.
The loss ended Arcadia’s season with an 8-3 record. The Raiders pulled off two upsets to advance to the state championship. They may be wondering what might have been, however, as The Prairie School had little trouble in the state championship match, beating St. Lawrence Seminary 4-0.
TPS 1 Arcadia 0
An early goal that was called off might have been Arcadia’s best shot.
The Raiders seemed to take a 1-0 lead in the fourth minute as Lizandro Aguilar Vasquez scored on a header, but an offsides penalty took the goal away. Arcadia was called for offsides five times in the match, while The Prairie School was whistled for two violations.
The Raiders had a breakaway about 10 minutes later, but it was deflected and bounced off the crossbar.
For the match, Arcadia had seven shots on goal, but they weren’t able to get any past Devon Stoltenberg, who managed saves on all of them.
Arcadia’s defense was able to limit The Prairie School to 19 shots on goal as goalie Marcos Lorenze had nine saves in the match. But late in the match, the eventual state champions got a good look at the net and kicked one in to get the win.
Cesar Uriel Ortiz, Hugo Hernandez and Bill Breska all had two shots on goal for Arcadia. The Raiders had four more shot attempts that were off the mark.
