MOREHEAD —
Rowan County's Sebastian Taylor still may not know this morning how he scored on a penalty kick in Thursday's boys soccer match against visiting Boyd County.
The Vikings are certainly glad he did. His goal in the 10th minute helped in a 2-1 win.
After a Boyd County player was whistled for a foul inside the 18-yard box, Taylor beat the Lions' Jaz Stephenson to the lower left corner of the net. He said there was no particular plan to send the shot where he did.
“It changes every time,” Taylor said. “I don't know (why); I just had a feeling.”
Rowan County coach Alan Evans said Taylor takes every penalty kick. He was pretty sure last night's shot was important for a second reason: it made up for a miss in a 3-1 loss to Marion County at a tournament at Nelson County.
“You can miss one, but you can't miss two,” Evans said, “so that probably was a little added pressure.”
Rowan County (8-5-3) won its second straight match — the Vikings beat Johnson Central, 6-0, Tuesday after dropping five in a row (Kentucky Country Day, Nelson County, Marion County, Scott County and Montgomery County).
“They give you that experience at the next level, so that's what we're always trying to progress to,” Evans said.
Taylor played both striker and sweeper — which was as important to Evans because senior Matt Catron was out with an injury.
Boyd County (8-5-1) coach William Ferguson thought his team persevered through last night's adversity — leading scorer Jonah Black was ejected for drawing yellow cards on two hard fouls in the first half, which meant the Lions were a player down the second half. He also said there were “sketchy things” on the pitch.
“I thought we outplayed them the second half,” Ferguson said. “Some of the calls were terrible; we've dealt with that a lot this year.”
The Lions kept the ball in Rowan County's end of the field for much of the first half, and evened the scoring in the 37th minute when senior halfback Ryan Whitt converted a whiff on a clearing kick by tapping the ball past the Vikings' Ty Alderman.
Before the coin flip to determine who would kick off first, referee Shawn Heck told both sides he wanted a clean match, but he didn't get it, at least in the first half, and not just because Black was booted. There were five yellow cards — four on Boyd County — including one to Ferguson.
Rowan County benefitted on a Boyd County own-goal in the 40th minute. Senior Jon Lacy received credit by being the closest Viking.
Alderman remembered two second half plays in particular: a save in the 47th minute when Whitt's direct kick split two Viking defenders; and a Boyd County miss in the 75th when an indirect free kick he lost in the lights sailed over the crossbar.
Taylor was sketchy about the direction of his penalty kick, but took a microsecond to explain why he preferred being a striker on offense to a sweeper on defense.
“I just like scoring,” Taylor said.
Goals:
RC-Taylor, penalty kick, 10th minute
BC-Whitt, unassisted, 37th
RC-Boyd Co. own goal, credited to Jonathan Lacy, 40th
Shots: Boyd Co. 8, Rowan Co. 4.
Local Sports
Taylor-made win
Vikings edge penalty-ridden Boyd County, 2-1
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