Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008

Highland wins battle of Bulldogs with Waterloo

Waterloo tourney will be discontinued

WATERLOO -- Highland on Monday earned the honor of being the final champion of the Waterloo Tournament.

Dakota Gilbert scored at 49 minutes, 36 seconds to give Highland a 1-0 victory over host Waterloo --its third win over Waterloo this season. The tournament won't continue next year because of its proximity to the start of the Class 1A postseason.

"The postseason really starts today for a lot of the Class 1A schools," Waterloo coach Chad Holden said. "They switched some things around so they could play today. It's hard to play a tournament and then have postseason, which is really what you're playing for."

Valmeyer, Freeburg, Marquette and Lebanon, four of the six teams in the tournament, compete in Class 1A. They all had to postpone the start of their playoffs until the Waterloo Tournament finished. Waterloo and Highland compete in Class 2A and begin the playoffs Monday.

Waterloo was trying to win the tourney for the second straight year, having defeated Highland in the title game last year. But Gilbert settled a pass from Andy Reutiman on the right side of the box and finished an odd-angled attempt from inside the left post, beating goalie Andrew Donelson for his 12th goal.

"The boys came out all weekend ... and pretty much played their game. They didn't lose their heads," said Highland coach Brent Knebel, whose team advanced to the championship game with wins over Lebanon (5-0) and Freeburg (3-0) on Saturday. "They possessed well, finished on our opportunities and came away with three shutouts.

"We've got one more game before playoffs on Thursday. This is good. We had a rough week a couple of weeks ago, but after that, we've really bounced back and got back on track. We're starting to build up some very good team camaraderie and some momentum going into the playoffs."

Highland (14-5-1) built momentum late in the first half. Gilbert's shot in the 36th minute was grabbed by Donelson in front of the left post. Two minutes later, Reutiman ripped a shot toward the right post that short-hopped Donelson and caromed off his body. Donelson, however, was able to cover before Highland got to the rebound.

"We missed a couple of shots in the first half from around the 6," Knebel said. "It takes a side volley from just inside the 18 to go far netting and finally put one on the board."

Waterloo (9-7-4) could mount little offense in the second half. Mike Yarber's hard shot from above the right box in the final two minutes was controlled by Trey Plocher, whose shutout was his eighth of the season.

"This is what it's going to be like next week when we start postseason," Holden said. "You're not going to get a lot of shots, so you've got to take advantage of the few ones you get and hope something happens.

"We're improving as the season progresses. We just saw these guys Thursday and they beat us 3-1. We didn't play very well. Here, we played them pretty tight the entire game. Hopefully, that carries over into the postseason next week."

Freeburg 1, Marquette 0

Ricky Houston scored from Ryan Jetton in the 75th minute to give the Midgets a victory in the third-place game.

Houston found the ball at his feet after Freeburg (8-10-2) made a quick counterstrike and he rushed in and finished a one-on-one chance against Marquette keeper Adam Wuellner. It was Houston's 10th goal of the season.

In the fifth-place game, Lebanon defeated Valmeyer 4-1.

Contact reporter David Wilhelm at dwilhelm@bnd.com.