Raiders and Devils kick to a draw on the pitch

QUINCY — Andrew Brown was so close.

Painstakingly close.

With three minutes left and the Quincy High School and Quincy Notre Dame boys soccer teams deadlocked at 3 during Thursday night’s clash at Flinn Stadium, Quincy’s Logan Epping received a through ball on the right wing from Trace Routh. Epping kept his eyes up and saw Brown making an unmarked run to the far post. Epping delivered a seam pass to Brown, who got the slightest of touches on it with his right foot. The ball trickled just wide, leaving Brown wondering what could have been as he fell to his knees near the goalpost. The Blue Devils and Raiders had to settle for a 3-3 tie.

“I was really mad at myself, but I was proud of the effort I made to get there,” Brown said. “I just missed it on the final thing. That happens sometimes.”

When Epping played the ball across, he thought for all the world Brown was going to put it home.

“I was like, ‘He’s got it, he’s got it!’” Epping said. “It was so close, inches away.”

Just seven minutes before this near-game-winner, Epping got on the end of a Brown cross and volleyed the ball out of the air with his right foot and past Raiders goalkeeper Carter Hankins to knot the game at 3.

Brown said some split-second decision-making led to him creating that chance for Epping.

“Adrian (Blattner) played me a ball through, got a head on it, saw (Raiders defender) Elliott (Hendrian) coming in, and I knew that if I tried to go for another touch with my foot, he was going to be able to deflect it out for a throw-in, so I just stuck my head in there and thought, ‘Worst case scenario, he kicks my head in and he gets a red card,’” Brown said. “He didn’t get there. I was able to get the second touch on it, cross it with my left, said, ‘Someone go get it, Trace or Logan,’ and Logan was there. Beautiful finish.”

Epping’s fist pumps and screams of utter euphoria after netting the equalizer matched the moment.

“I was ecstatic, the adrenaline,” Epping said. “It was a great ball by Andrew.”

Epping’s goal came after the Raiders rallied from down 2-0 at halftime to take a 3-2 lead with 18:21 left. Junior forward Nolan Heck fired a low bullet off a free kick from 30 yards out that whistled past Blue Devils keeper Lance Venvertloh into the bottom left corner of the net.

Channing Trevino tied the game at 2 in the 50th minute. Off a QHS corner, the ball deflected toward midfield, at which point Heck won a contested ball. The ball caromed forward to Trevino who settled it mid-stride, outran Cooper Dinkheller and shot back against the grain with his right foot from the edge of the 18-yard box. Venvertloh’s diving attempt went begging, giving Trevino his first career goal, one that will stick with Trevino for quite some time.

“To score my first goal of my career against QHS is pretty special,” Trevino said. “It was a blur. Having the student section here, all my supporters and teammates, it was a pretty great feeling.”

Trevino had also missed the previous 10 games with a broken nose and a concussion. His return gave Raiders coach Greg Reis an extra layer of toughness the Raiders have been missing for nearly a month.

“He played really well tonight,” Reis said of Trevino. “Fitness wise, he’s obviously not where he’d be if he hadn’t gotten hurt. We’re not going to count on Channing to score a lot of goals for us, but his energy and tenacity and ball-winning ability is huge for us. He’s one of our tougher guys and a guy who’s not afraid to stick his nose in.”

The Blue Devils’ first two goals came in the 14th and 20th minutes. With 26:30 left in the first half, QND’s Robbie Reed turned over the ball in his own half right to Kade Parkhill, who rifled a shot from 35 yards out to kickstart the scoring. Six minutes later, a Routh cross deflected off Brown to Campbell Reekie, whose well-struck right-footed shot gave the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead that would remain until the 48th minute when QND senior midfielder Rylan Fischer got on the end of a Brody Jones free kick to bring the Raiders (7-11-2) within one.

“They owned us in the first half,” Reis said. “They’ve had a tough season, so I think they were hoping to get a big victory tonight to cap off their season a little bit more. Credit to our guys for coming back, but their third goal was what’s happened to us a lot this year, our inability to deal with a flighted ball at the backer and the midfield.”

Blue Devils coach Ron Bridal credited his team for not sulking after surrendering a two-goal lead and fighting back to earn a draw.

“When you lose momentum and the other team has it, if you don’t have it with play, you’ve got to do it with encouragement, organizing and communication,” Bridal said. “Credit to our kids, they did that at the end and were able to gain back the momentum and had them on their heels. Credit to them for their resiliency.”

While Brown narrowly missed giving Quincy a victory in the waning minutes, Bridal has been encouraged with what he’s seen out of the Blue Devils lately. After a 1-13-1 start, QHS is now 2-0-1 in its last three games with wins over Western Big 6 opponents Galesburg and Sterling.

“One of the things we’ve seen is our ability to move the ball around, play the ball up to our center forwards, knocking it back, and then finding seams in between and getting opportunities like we did tonight to get behind their backs and slot the ball,” Bridal said. “The opportunities we created tonight were a testament to what the kids have done as the season has progressed. It’s allowed us to have some success here at the end that we hope will carry over.

“The momentum these kids have built is going to be the kind of momentum that allows us to surprise some people once we get to the postseason.”

Photos by Shane Hulsey