ARGOS - The town of Argos could have been renamed Heartbreak City Thursday.
In the opening round of the Argos Sectional, both Manchester and Warsaw suffered one-goal losses at Eugene Snyder Field, Warsaw's in penalty kicks and Manchester's in a firey dispute with referees. Either way, the teams were sent home from the postseason prematurely by Marshall County squads.The sectional's opening match, pitted two Northern Lakes Conference teams against one another. And the rivalry between the Rockies and Tigers was very evident, highlighted by the 41 combined fouls.
Through all the physical play, the two rivals ended regulation with a 1-1 tie, and that score held up following overtime. With neither team giving an inch, the match hung on penalty kicks, which Plymouth won, connecting on all five attempts.
"I thought it played out pretty much the way I thought it might," Warsaw coach Scott Bauer said. "I thought it'd be a close game and we'd score a couple goals. Unfortunately, we only got one."
Rockies coach Josh Martin may only be in his first year as the head man at Plymouth, but he's well aware of what a Warsaw-Plymouth match entales.
"Part of the rivalry is that they're just so top notch," Martin said of the Tigers. "They've gotten the best of us a lot, so in practice I have my varsity 11 out there training against some of the JV and reserves, we're pretending that's Warsaw. Because that's the hump we haven't been able to get over for years now."
Before last night, Warsaw had owned the Argos Sectional, winning five straight titles since 2002. So as if losing the match wasn't difficult enough, to lose it in penalty kicks was even tougher.
In penalty kicks, teams take turns taking shots inside the 18, until five players have taken shots for each team.
Thursday, Warsaw only sent four up to kick as Plymouth's Randy Davis netted his team's fifth, and final kick, following a Warsaw miss - starting the Rockie celebration.
"Every one of those PKs was well hit," Bauer said. "They were wonderful PKs. I don't think we have a keeper that could have stopped them."
And the keeper that was in the net was freshman Mario Duran.
Senior Justin Evans has been a goalkeeping standout during his time at Warsaw, but during penalty kick practices, Duran has had an edge on the senior. With that, Bauer and his coaching staff allowed Evans to make the call as to who would be in the net during the crucial kicks.
"We were waiting to see if he'd come over and say, 'Mario's better than me (at penalty kicks)'," Bauer said. "If he hadn't, he would have been the keeper. As it was, he did (say it), and I think that takes a lot of character to say we've been doing PKs for two-straight weeks, and (Duran's) better. When we heard that from him, we decided to go with Mario."
And Duran's ability to defend PKs was evident in the 52nd minute of regulation. Following a foul which resulted in a penalty kick by Plymouth sophomore Todd Vervynckt, Evans drew a yellow card, which brought Duran in to defend Vervynckt's shot - which he did successfully.
"The kid they brought in, he could really get across the goal," Martin said of Duran.
"Evans also made some brilliant saves over the course of the game," the Plymouth coach added. "So either way, our guys hit the ball pretty solid. I was a little nervous when they decided to put (Duran) in there, because he had some spring."
Duran was just one of the match's three goalkeepers with "spring." Evans finished the match with numerous diving saves, as did Plymouth's Chris Tobolski.
"He had eight shutouts this year and had some real big time games," Martin said of his keeper. "I know he's given up some goals he wasn't happy about, but when it comes down to the big games, he can really be a big game player."
Thursday's second match actually saw more points taken off the board than put on.
On separate occasions, the match's referee failed to see his line judge's flag, signaling a ball that had gone out-of-bounds. On both occurrences, once for Argos and once for Manchester, a goal was scored. Once the referee did notice the line judge's flag, the point was taken away and the ball went back to where the ball intially went out of play.
Manchester had its point taken away when Josh Watson apparently scored with only 8:45 remaining in the contest. Following the goal, the Squires' celebration quickly turned sour when they noticed the ball being given to Argos for a throw-in.
And coach Dave McKee was definitely unamused at the incident.
"When you lose this way, not because of what happened with the boys on the field, but because of the adults - it's terrible," he said.
Argos also had a point taken off the board for the same reason, but Dragons coach Myron Bontreger also felt like his guys left points off the board themselves.
"We were in behind their defense a lot and just didn't find that one kid in the middle to swat it and score," Bontreger said. "Really, if we could have taken advantage of a couple of those early, it might have been different. But because we didn't take advantage of those, they stayed in the game and kept fighting and fighting."
Argos took the lead 22 minutes into the contest following an unassisted goal by senior Dale Rex, and despite great Manchester hustle, the goal stood up to the end.
"We played hard, Argos played hard - evenly matched teams," McKee said. "It was a good game. I take my hat off to Argos. It was really a well-played game."
PLYMOUTH 2, WARSAW 1 (PKs)
W - Tony Franco (Noah Price assist) 29th min.
P - Todd Vervynckt (unassisted) 50th min.
Shots on Goal - Plymouth 8, Warsaw 15
Saves - Plymouth (Chris Tobolski) 9, Warsaw (Justin Evans 6, Mario Duran 1) 7
