EARLY CENTRAL GOAL ALMOST COSTLY

Nearly 75 minutes elapsed between its two goals, but the Cape Central boys soccer team held visiting Belleville, Ill., Althoff scoreless in the second half and won 2-1 Saturday.

It was Central's final regular season match at Lou Muegge Field. The Tigers improved to 9-4-1; Althoff fell to 2-5-2.

Central scored a goal around three minutes into the match. The game-winner came with around two and a half minutes remaining in the match.

"Maybe the worst thing in the world for us today was to score that goal as early as we did," said Central coach Tom Doyle. "I think we thought `Oh, these guys are going to be easy', and then they proved that they weren't."

Central's first goal was scored by Justin Bell on an assist from Chris Thompson. Bell took a long shot that probably should have handled by the Althoff goalkeeper, but it bounced off his hands an into the net.

"We came out a little flat," said Althoff coach Dave Stosberg. "The first goal just went through our keeper's hands."

With around nine minutes left in the first half, the Crusaders scored their goal. Aaron Emig scored on a pass from David Woodrome.

Although both teams had a few good shots on goal in the second half, the matched looked headed toward overtime. Central's Ben Keefe changed that when he took a pass from Justin McMullen and scored on a turnaround shot with under three minutes remaining.

"In the second half we got after it a little bit and I thought we played much better," said Doyle. "I thought it was a good game for both teams. We're getting good, but we're not perfect yet."

"It was a pretty even match," said Stosberg. "We wound up playing well, but Cape has got a good team."

Central's varsity team has eight regular season matches remaining -- all on the road. But for two of those matches, the Tigers won't have to travel far. Remaining are matches against rivals Jackson and Notre Dame.