Boys district soccer: Firelands loses heartbreaker on penalty kick

SOUTH AMHERST — Anything can happen in penalty kicks.Firelands learned that Thursday, playing 90 minutes of shutout defense, but losing to Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin 2-1 on penalty kicks in the Division IV, Northeast 1 district semifinal at South Amherst Middle School.No. 15 seeded NDCL (10-6-3) will face No. 6 West Branch (14-4), which defeated No. 9 Field (14-5) 3-2 in the other semifinal, in the district final hosted by Avon Lake on Saturday at 4 p.m. No. 5 Firelands finishes at 16-3-1."Obviously it was a really great game, two evenly-matched teams," Firelands coach Bill Yakunovich said. "I thought we played well. I thought the game could have gone either way. It's tough to lose in PKs. I hate going to PKs, just because you never know who's going to come out on top. I feel more confident playing the game."All the scoring came in the first 20 minutes. NDCL got on the board in the second minute when Ryan Cvitkovic looped a perfect free kick into the right corner of the net. But Firelands answered with 20:01 to play when Tristan Janosik was fed a beautiful cross off a throw-in. The sophomore turned, fired and knotted the game up at 1."I played it back and pounded it in the back of the net," Janosik said. "It energized us a lot. The intensity skyrocketed a lot. We had a lot of chances, just couldn't follow through on them. We gave it our all. My brother is a senior. It was fun playing with him. I'm a sophomore so I'm going to have to hold it down next year."Both defenses played lockdown for the next 90 minutes with Firelands goalkeeper Ashton Lutz and his counterpart Kristian Mazar making some tremendous saves. Lutz deflected 11 shots after allowing the opening goal while Mazar saved nine total.Firelands had a shot to secure a golden goal at the end of the first overtime when Jayden Becker found himself with some space in the box with 50 seconds left, but Mazar punched the attempt over the goal.NDCL had its chance to walk off with less than two minutes left in the second overtime, feeding Cvitkovic — who entered Thursday with 36 goals and 13 assists — the ball in the middle of the box, but Lutz made a great save.In penalty kicks, NDCL took a 2-0 lead after the third kick when freshman Landon Becker got the Falcons on the board. Eli Lauric converted the ensuing attempt, which forced Firelands to play perfect just to tie. Mazar made another save to clinch the win."I'm really proud of the boys," Yakunovich said. "I'm really proud of the program. I know this stinks that the season is over, but I can't complain. The boys played hard all season. They're a great bunch of kids, so I'm really happy and I'm looking forward to next season."Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X.NDCL 2, Firelands 1 (PK)GOALS: (N) Ryan Cvitkovic (2nd minute), (F) Tristan Janosik (20th minute).ASSISTS: (F) Alex Duke. SHOTS: NDCL 21, Firelands 19 SHOTS ON GOAL: NDCL 12, Firelands 10SAVES: (N) Kristian Mazar 9, (F) Ashton Lutz 11FOULS: NDCL 10, Firelands 14YELLOW CARDS: NDCL 2, Firelands 0CORNER KICKS: NDCL 8, Firelands 5FREE KICKS: NDCL 14, Firelands 10GOAL KICKS: NDCL 14, Firelands 10HALFTIME: Tied at 1PENALTY KICKS: (NDCL) Made: Luka Sesar, Dario Musa, Eli Lauric; Missed: Cvitkovic. (F) Made: Landon Becker; Missed: Garrison Lee, Jayden Becker, Janosik.