MANCHESTER — A year after falling to Oneida Baptist in the 13th Region boys’ soccer championship, North Laurel got its revenge Thursday night, rallying from a two-goal deficit to pull out a dramatic 4–3 victory.
The Jaguars improved to 4-4-1 overall and 3-0 in 49th District play, while the Mountaineers slipped to 5-2 and 0-1 in district competition.
North Laurel coach David Broyles praised both sides for their effort in the rematch.
“First of all, I want to give OBI a lot of credit,” he said. “They are a good team and it was a hard fought game. I felt my boys showed tremendous heart and determination tonight. We opened the scoring with Reilly Stuber finding Cam Anderson with a slotted ball that he back healed into the net. We held the lead for a little while but OBI was able to tie it up. They scored again to make it 2-1 at halftime. We made a defensive mistake that they took advantage of early in the second half to extend to a 3-1 lead. My boys continued to fight though and we scored a second goal when Zach Jacobs found his brother Jaxon for a goal with a nice through ball.”
North Laurel’s rally began midway through the second half. Trailing 3–1, the Jaguars closed the gap when Zach Jacobs found his brother Jaxon for a goal, before tying the match on a deflected shot from Zach himself with just six minutes remaining.
“We were able to tie it up with about six minutes left when Zach Jacobs intercepted a pass and his deflected shot went into the net,” Broyles added. “From there, I felt we hit another gear and earned our 10th or 11th corner on the night. Zach Jacobs played a great ball in, that Sawyer Miller got a head on for the winning goal. I couldn’t be prouder of how this team played. We didn’t get down when they were ahead, we just kept digging and made the plays when we needed them. We will need to keep improving though as I expect to play them again at some point. For now we ready ourselves for a really good LaFayette team this Saturday.”
Miller’s header off a late corner sealed the comeback and sent the Jaguars home with a statement win in district play.
