Omaha Skutt ends Pius X's perfect season

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BY BRENT C. WAGNER / Lincoln Journal Star

OMAHA — Josh Walz needed a potty break following the opening 80 minutes of the Class B boys state championship match on Tuesday.

“I didn’t think I would have been able to make it,” the Omaha Skutt senior keeper said.

It’s a good thing, too, because Skutt’s match versus Lincoln Pius X kept going, and going and going. And going. It went all the way to the seventh round of a sudden-death shootout.

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Omaha Skutt celebrates after beating undefeated Lincoln Pius X in the Class B boys soccer championship Tuesday in Omaha. (Michael Paulsen)

Omaha Skutt celebrates after beating undefeated Lincoln Pius X in the Class B boys soccer championship Tuesday in Omaha. (Michael Paulsen)

That’s when the Thunderbolts’ Anthony Johnson watched his penalty kick hit the left post and bound away, clinching Skutt’s 3-2 victory, and ruining the Thunderbolts’ bid for a perfect season.

After Pius X took control with goals by Jake Ramsay and Joe Hilger in the second and 14th minutes of the match, Skutt rallied, and with three minutes remaining in regulation, Greg Taphorn’s header following a free kick forced overtime.

“After they put those two goals in, I was worried,” Walz said, “but we were somehow able to get the momentum back.”

Skutt had most of the good scoring chances in overtime, but no one converted.

Later, after being tied with three penalty kicks apiece after five rounds of the shootout, the match shifted to a sudden-death format.

In the sixth round, Walz helped his own cause with a low corner shot, and the Thunderbolts’ Dylan Stoll answered by bouncing a shot in off the post.

In the seventh round, the SkyHawks’ Barrett Shainholtz made a shot to the top left corner of the goal. Moments later, Skutt celebrated.

Shainholtz was the improbable hero. A junior forward, he’d scored two goals all season, and played only seven minutes in the  match.

Partly because he’s never attempted a penalty kick in his life, Shainholtz assumed the fate of the match would never be resting at his foot.

“They were like, ’Who wants to kick?,’” Shainholtz said. “Somebody said Barrett, and coach looked at me. I was like, ‘Alright.’

“I’m still shaking. It’s the greatest feeling I’ve had in my whole life.”

Each of the three Pius X misses in the shootout hit off the post.

“We practiced penalty kicks (Monday), and it was post city,” Pius X coach Harlan Milder said. “So, the number of posts wasn’t a real surprise.”

Milder felt his players may have altered their attack after taking an early lead.

“I don’t think we ever played complacent,” Milder said. “But sometimes the key when you have a two-goal lead is to maintain possession.”

It was the Thunderbolts’ first overtime match of the season. Pius X had beaten Skutt 4-1 during the regular season.

Skutt coach Paul Bangura praised the play of Pius X keeper Cody Poteat. Walz wasn’t too shabby, either.

“The game belonged to both goalies,” Bangura said. “I’m sorry you have to have a winner and a loser.”

Reach Brent C. Wagner at 473-7435 or bwagner@journalstar.com.