Lansing and Louisburg battle to 3-3 draw

The Louisburg and Lansing boys’ soccer teams played with the ferocity of a state playoff game despite the fact that it was each team’s season opener on Friday evening at Lansing Middle School, but they had to settle for a 3-3 tie.
Lansing’s Jake McCurry scored his second goal of the game with seven minutes, four seconds remaining in regulation to knot the score, and neither team could score again through the second half or either of the two overtime periods.

“I knew they were going to be a tough team, I knew it was going to be a great matchup for us, and it proved to be that,” Lansing head coach Randy Brown said. “I was happy that we were scoring, that the offense was working ... and one of the main things we wanted to work on making sure our defense was going to stay cohesive, and in the main, they did.”

Louisburg led for most of the second half after they claimed their only lead just 1:23 after intermission when the ball squirted away from goalkeeper Nate Runyon, allowing Harrison Unthank to punch it into an open net and break the 2-2 halftime tie.

The Lions stayed in the game, though, and finally pulled even again when McCurry won a race to the ball with Wildcat goalkeeper Nick Stefan, and he was just able to trickle it past Stefan and into the far right corner of the net.

“I saw the defender just pass it back, and it didn’t have any power on it,” McCurry said. “I knew it wasn’t going to get to the goalie, so I just hustled on that, got in front of the defender, and finished.”

Chris Rathjen, who had scored Lansing’s first goal, had two opportunities in the final four minutes of regulation to win it, but neither shot went in. The second one was saved on a dive by Stefan. Runyon also recovered to play solidly down the stretch, and he saved the game with 3:30 left in double overtime when Louisburg’s Daniel Wilson lobbed a shot that Runyon smacked away with a leaping, one-handed play.

Wilson had also nearly scored with 5:30 left in the first overtime when his direct kick hit the left post, but nothing got between the pipes for the last 58 minutes of the game against Runyon, who was playing for Lansing for the first time after a knee injury to All-KVL goalie Josh Wepking.

“There were a couple of great saves that he made,” Brown said of Runyon. “He’s playing well. This was his first varsity start for us, and Nate played a decent game. But we need all 11 people out there playing. There were times that it seemed like there were only nine playing ... we’ve got to pull all that together.”

The Lions controlled the scoring chances at the start, breaking through when Rathjen chased down a long pass from Zachery Watkins as he sprinted past Tanner O’Hara toward the left post before shooting back across to the far corner. Louisburg tied it when Wilson won a race to the ball with Runyon and chipped it over him, but Lansing needed only 54 seconds to retake the lead. Rathjen had a nearly identical play as the one he scored on, but this time the shot hit the right post and bounced to McCurry for the stickback.

Woody Watson tied it with 3:53 left in the half when he got 1-on-1 against Runyon, but in the exact same situation 14 seconds later Runyon made the save to keep the game tied.

The second half was a series of near-misses for Lansing until McCurry’s final goal. The Lions nearly tied it earlier when Garrett Hinckley split two defenders with a perfect through ball to Rathjen, but he had a nasty collision with Stefan and was shaken up for much of the rest of the game but still played.

The news was not as good for Wepking. An MRI earlier this week revealed he has a torn ACL, MCL, and meniscus in addition to a stress fracture. He will be out of action at least until regionals the week of Oct. 25.

Lansing will play again at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Blue Valley Southwest. All their games will continue to be non-league contests until they host Turner on Sept. 16.

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