As the Otselic Valley boys soccer team walked off the field towards their bus, so too did the sound of Carly Rae Jepsen coming out of their speaker in celebration. No. 6 McGraw was then left to process an early exit from the Section III Class D tournament at the hands of the Vikings, losing 2-1 in the first round.
“It’s a big shock,” McGraw head coach Jamey Crumb said. “We talked before the game about how it’s hard to beat a good team three times, but we knew that they were capable and what we had.”
After defeating the Vikings twice in the regular season, the Eagles’ quest to finish the trilogy with another win looked to be on the right track to start the afternoon. McGraw put the Vikings on their heels immediately, keeping the ball in the attacking third for nearly all of the first half. The Eagles kept getting the ball to the foot of Blair Mulcahy, but the Otselic Valley defense was strong enough to keep him from capitalizing on a couple great looks.
After creating multiple chances for his squad, Calob Sutton decided to take it himself for the Eagles. Controlling the ball just outside the penalty area, he slotted the ball in the bottom left corner to beat goalkeeper Caleb Loomis.
Otselic Valley looked to retaliate, but the Eagles’ defense pressured the Vikings into making long passes, all of which were cut out by goalkeeper Zach Kahle the moment they entered the penalty box.
As the first half drew to a close, it appeared that the Eagles would make this series a three-peat.
“The first half, we dominated in every facet of the game,” Crumb said. “We just didn’t put away some really good chances. We let them hang in there with only a 1-0 lead, and then we had some bad timing and bad bounces.”
Those bounces came in the form of controlled chaos by the Vikings in the second half. The ball was suddenly stuck in the middle third, as McGraw couldn’t get itself into scoring range. Out of the chaos came the Vikings’ Owen Davis, who ran by the Eagles’ defense and chipped Kahle to bring the game even once again.
The chaos continued and a violent jump ball ended with McGraw’s Liam Baker on the grass and Otselic Valley’s Lukas Schieferstein being shown a yellow card. The Eagles used the ensuing possession to fire a barrage of shots at Loomis, who turned each of them away.
Davis, not satisfied with one goal, got on the end of a well-placed through ball from Schieferstein for a near-perfect recreation of his first goal, putting home yet another chip shot to ice the game for his Vikings.
After a few minutes of desperation from McGraw, the underdog Otselic Valley began its celebration.
While the season may be over for this Eagles squad, their story certainly isn’t. Aside from one senior, the entire roster will return in 2025 looking for redemption.
“They’re going to keep getting better in winter and summer sessions,” Crumb said. “Sometimes it’s not about skill. We definitely had more skill (Wednesday), but it was about heart and hustle and strength. We weren’t physical enough where we needed to be, and that can decide the game sometimes.”
McGraw finished the season with a 10-6-1 record.
