The Alexander City Outlook

Tough loss

For photos from the game, click here

In a rough, intense rivalry game on Monday in Alexander City, the Auburn Tigers defeated the Benjamin Russell boys soccer team in sudden death.

After a scoreless regulation and two overtimes could not decide anything, the two teams went into a best-of-five penalty kick shootout. Auburn made its first three goals, and the Wildcats missed their first two, giving BRHS a grim outlook.

But, Jacob Smith, Mark Chappell and Hardy Barrett all converted on their attempts, and goalie Thomas Lutz made two saves to send the game into sudden death.

Auburn then scored first, Brady McMillan answered, Auburn scored again and Lutz stepped out of the goal to keep his team alive with a goal of his own.

However, after Auburn found the net for a third time, BRHS’ last attempt sailed over the goal, giving the Tigers a crucial section win.

“They made one more play than we did,” head coach Sammy Teel said. “That’s all you can say. But, we’re not out of it. We basically have a two-week break to prepare for Prattville. We know we can beat them; we almost did last year, and now we have to.

“You can tell it means a lot to us. Our guys are hurt. We’re hurt bad. But we’ll bounce back. We gave it all we had.”

The BRHS girls lost 6-0 to the Lady Tigers.

“We had some injuries the other night and some tonight, so our personnel wasn’t there,” Teel said. “We need a good game Wednesday night against Central-Phenix to regroup.”

Both teams lost at home against Thompson (boys 2-1, girls (5-1) on Saturday after defeating Stanhope Elmore Friday night (boys 3-0, girls 4-0).

The boys are now 7-3 (2-1), and the girls are 3-4 (1-1). The girls host CPC Wednesday at 6 p.m. The boys play again March 23 at Prattville.