Natchitoches-Central scored two goals, while Terrebonne only scored one, in their Division II first-round boys’ soccer playoff match at Thomas B. Smith Memorial Stadium in Houma on Saturday.
Unfortunately for No. 23-seeded Natchitoches-Central, one of its goals went into its own net, giving the Tigers a 2-1 win.
“We’ll take them anyway we can get them,” Terrebonne coach Joe Clement chuckled.
No. 10 Terrebonne (18-3-8 overall) will move to second-round of the Division II state playoffs next week. The Tigers will travel to Monroe to take on No. 7 Neville.
Terrebonne’s first-round playoff match against Natchitoches-Central (5-10-4 overall) started slowly, especially the first five minutes, which at times looked more like a slow motion replay rather than live action.
Both teams were tentative, feeling each other out, and most of the action took place in the middle of the pitch.
Terrebonne got the first shot on goal in the 14th minute that was easily saved by Chiefs’ goalie Thomas Wiggins.
Natchitoches-Central got off three shots on goal between the 18th and 23rd minutes, but the shots were not strong. One went high, another wide, and the third was directly into the hands of Terrebonne goalie Dorian Lirette.
The Tigers put a bit of pressure on in the next few minutes, getting off two shots, but neither connected.
In the 38th minute, there was a match-changing play that Tiger soccer fans will be talking about for a long time.
Senior Cameron Dowden threw in a ball from the sidelines deep in Chiefs’ territory, a long high lob that landed right in the middle of a scrum directly in front of the Natchitoches-Central goal.
The ball ricocheted like a pinball a couple of times, then careened off the head of a Natchitoches-Central player directly into the upper left hand corner of the goal, putting Terrebonne up 1-0 right before halftime.
“I just tried to put it on the big man in in the front post,” Dowden said. “Everyone went for it, including our keeper, and we just got a lucky flick into the goal.”
Cameron Carter was in the middle of the scrum.
“The plan is usually for (Dowden) to hit someone on the head, and catch the defense slipping, so I was trying to get to the middle kind of away from everyone, away from the front post, and their guy was there trying to flick it into the middle, but he flicked it backwards into his own goal,” Carter said.
The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the 76th minute on Mauro Ramirez’s penalty kick.
“I got the ball, and I was trying to get to the outside of the box, and when I made the cut someone stepped on me and kicked my foot, and they called the PK,” Ramirez said. “You have to take every advantage possible, so I just put it in the net.”
Natchitoches scored in the 78th minute on a shot from Braden Arnold.
“I didn’t think we came out with the intensity we needed to start the game,” Clement said. “We had some shots, and we just couldn’t put them in. On the own goal, that’s just the way the ball bounces sometimes. We were fortunate.”