It took double overtime and more than 107 minutes of hard-hitting soccer to do it, but the Carthage Tigers are district champs for the second year in a row.
The Tigers beat Joplin 1-0 with a goal off a corner kick in the final three minutes of the second overtime.
The goal came on a corner kick and actually bounced off a Joplin player into Joplin’s net for an “own goal.”
It also came after Carthage Junior Varsity Goalie Arnold Herrera, playing varsity after the Tigers’ starting goalie Ludin Gonzalez broke his hand in an earlier meeting with Joplin, held off 16 Eagle shots in more than three periods of play.
“That was the most incredible zero-zero game I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Carthage Coach Jacob Osborne. “Typically zero-zero games, there’s not a ton of action, it’s all played in the middle of the field, there aren’t very many scoring opportunities. That wasn’t the case in tonight, both teams’ goalies played outstanding games and made incredible saves or the shots would go just wide or off the post. We had it all tonight.”
