Seckman ends Central's season in district final

JACKSON -- Seckman's Jake DiMaio saw an errant pass and pounced on the mistake.

He worked the ball past the goalie and buried a shot into the open goal.

The Jaguars added a second goal and held on for the 2-1 victory over Central to claim the Class 3 District 1 boys soccer title Thursday.

Central often used goalie Carlos Salas to help set up its attack. The Tigers would pass back to Salas, who would boot a pass downfield to generate an attack. But the Tigers misfired on a pass to Salas, and DiMaio stepped in.

"My teammate went for the ball originally and I stayed back and waited for the cross," DiMaio said. "I guess he mis-hit it and I corrected on his mistake.

"I just wanted to kick it. I wanted to turn it on my good foot, just throw it over the top of [Salas], put a light spin on it."

Central coach Dan Martin said using the goalkeeper to reset the offense is something his team regularly practices.

"All year long, that's one of the things we work on, keeper position," Martin said. "You can always restart with your keeper. That's our style, that's our system, and it kind of backfired on us tonight."

Seckman coach Tim Bookstaver told his team to put constant pressure on the Tigers in the hopes of creating a turnover like the one that led to DiMaio's goal.

"It was our design to pressure them the whole time," he said. "The first 10 minutes of the first half, I thought we did a good job. We were able to get some pressure on them."

Seckman's second goal came in a similar fashion. A Seckman player ran into Salas with about 26 minutes left in the second half, and Jamie Pickel had to replace Salas in goal. Less than a minute after coming into the game, Pickel faced his first test. He came out to play the ball at the top of the box, but Seckman's Joe Hula kicked it past Pickel and drilled the ball into the net with just under 26 minutes left.

The clock wasn't the Tigers' only enemy in their comeback attempt. A thick, stifling fog rolled in during the game, and players couldn't see their teammates down the field.

"It was not to our advantage to play in this," Martin said of the fog. "The field played fast and that played to our advantage. But with the fog, we couldn't see anything. That's why I had to switch it up and throw everything forward."

DiMaio said he thought he'd played in just about every condition possible until Thursday night, when it looked like someone set off a smoke bomb as the fog overwhelmed the field.

"I've played in sleet, snow, rain, mud, puddles," he said. "I've never not been able to see the other side of the field."

The Tigers tried to adjust to the fog as it became thicker as the game progressed.

"We were just playing kick and run at the end because we couldn't see down the field," Central senior Zach Zaruba said. "We just ran after the ball and it didn't end up working out for us."

Central kept working to throw shots at Seckman's goal in the closing minutes, but to no avail. Senior Jordan Sheets finally found pay dirt when he laced a shot in traffic past Seckman keeper Alex Held. But the Tigers couldn't find the equalizer in the waning seconds.

"It was the longest two minutes of my life," DiMaio said. "You just clear the ball down to their end and hope the referee blows the whistle."

It took about 20 minutes for the Tigers to settle into the game. They finally took control of the flow for the final 20 minutes of the first half. Their best chance came when Lucian Johnson earned a penalty kick with 16 minutes left, but his blast smacked the crossbar and bounced away.

The Tigers finished the season 17-10.

"We were overconfident," Zaruba said. "We thought we had going to sectionals before we even started the game. We didn't play very good at all, in my opinion. But our heart kept us in the game and we kept fighting."