Cactus Shadows soccer suffers devastating overtime loss
MARC BUCKHOUT ~MANAGING EDITOR ~ 1/25/2012

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The Cactus Shadows Falcons boys soccer team went into their Jan. 17 game at Greenway High School with the mindset that they were facing a must win in their quest to keep their post season hopes alive.
For a squad that went to the state quarterfinals during the 2009-2010 season and one that advanced to the state semifinals in 2010-2011 the expectations were high for coach Tony Vos’ squad this season.
Instead, an up and down regular season, in which Vos said the lack of experience defensively proved a challenging obstacle to overcome, hit a
new low as the Falcons squandered a 2-0 and 3-1 lead on their way to a 6-3 loss to Greenway in overtime.
Having gone into the game ranked 20th in the Division II power points, the Falcons, 4-5 in power rating games, slid all the way to 34th following the loss. With only 16 teams making the postseason field the Falcons coach said his team’s season will likely end (tonight) when
the Falcons host Shadow Mountain at 6 p.m.
“We have to finish the season out,” Vos said. “You never know what might happen, but I told my seniors they’d get as much of the time as I could give them. You want them to leave with as positive of a feeling as they can take away from this season. It’s just hard. I’ve known these seniors for 10 years.”
The Falcons started strong as sophomore Nick Jackson showed off his speed on a pair of give and go plays. On the first effort he passed the ball to senior Dylan Hartman, darted to the right of the goal, then received the return pass in time for a shot that beat the Demons goalie  to the far post for a 1-0 lead.
Less than two minutes later, on a striking similar effort, Jackson passed the ball to fellow sophomore Nick Hammer, cut hard to the goal and got the ball back from Hammer, beating the Demons net minder from inside the 18-yard box once again, to make the score 2-0, 22 minutes into the first half.
The score would remain 2-0 until the 4:33 mark of the first half. A steal near midfield set up a rush by the Demons, one that wasn’t stopped until the Greenway attacker was tripped inside the box.
Awarded a penalty kick by the officials, Demons junior Connor Holbert capitalized to make the score 2-1.
“One goal in soccer can change all the momentum,” Vos said. “We had dominated the first half, but that one play gave them confidence. Even though we scored early in the second half I don’t know if we ever got it back.”
The answer by the Falcons came less than three minutes into the second half when sophomore Kishan Patel’s corner kick was headed home by Hartman. The header, from the far post wasn’t crisply struck, but was perfectly placed, sneaking just in under the cross bar.
Unfortunately for the Falcons their defense simply couldn’t hold the lead. The Demons offensive strategy appeared to consist entirely of blasting the ball down the field with the hope of getting the ball to junior Mark Dogbah. The physical forward was challenged by Falcons senior Ryan Leander all night, but managed to score the tying goal in regulation, the second Greenway goal in a three minute span that knotted the score at 3, with 32 minutes still remaining in the game.
Jackson nearly won the game in regulation for the Falcons. On a long lead pass up the middle of the field the sophomore received a pass, with a step on the defense. Jackson drove to just within the 18-yard box where Greenway’s goalie made a spectacular save to keep the game tied 3-3 with approximately nine minutes remaining.
In overtime Greenway took its first lead of the game only two minutes into the extra session. On a long lead pass up the middle senior Reed Gasperone got to the ball and saw Cactus Shadows goalie Jake Berry come out to try and stop the rush. As soon as the ball got to his foot Gasperone chipped a high soft shot over Berry, a perfect effort that found the back of the net.
Any thoughts of Cactus Shadows making a comeback and sending the game to penalty shots ended at the 8:45 mark of the second overtime when Dogbah scored his second goal. While Berry stopped the initial shot, the ball ricocheted off his hands and Dogbah beat everybody to the rebound to give his team a two score advantage at 5-3. The Demons tacked on another goal on their second penalty kick of the night, this one converted by senior Christian Nag.
“We knew coming in that our backs were against the wall,” Vos said. “We just didn’t get it done. If I want to look on the bright side I say we only started four seniors and the rest we’ll return. The future might be bright, but that doesn’t do much for the seniors. I feel bad for Ryan and Jake because we just didn’t have enough true defenders back there with them to help. It was a struggle on the back line, but we still should have been right there.”
On Monday the Falcons took out some frustration with a 14-0 win over Paradise Valley.