Michael Catena was not the tallest or strongest player on the field. But no one wanted to get to the ball as badly as he did. Catena headed home the eventual game-winning goal with less than nine minutes left in regulation to lift the Rising Sun boys soccer team to a 4-3 comeback victory over visiting North East on Senior Night Tuesday, October 14. "I saw the ball coming," Catena said. "I knew I had to get my head on it. It was all or nothing. You only have one chance so you better make it happen." The winning sequence started innocently enough. A North East player and Rising Sun's Derek Abrigo collided while vying for a 50-50 ball near the sideline to the goalies' right of the Indians' net. The ball went out of bounds off Abrigo so North East would've had a throw-in in their own third of the field. However, the Indians player gave Abrigo a little shove. He was assessed a yellow card and Rising Sun was awarded a free kick from about 25 yards out.
Cody Thomas, who scored two goals, took the kick and sent a ball into the middle of the area. "I was just trying to hit it far enough away from the goal so the goalie couldn't get it and one of my players could," Thomas said. Catena doubts he was the primary target. "I was probably the last person he was aiming for because I'm so small," Catena said with a laugh. "But I have a lot of energy and I'm feisty. I just tried to get it and it was a shocker it went in." It was Catena's 11th goal of the season, but first on a header. "You do your best to aim it but once it goes off your head you have to trust it going to go in," he said. Trailing for the first time all night, North East did not seriously threaten to score the equalizer. At the final whistle, a large group of Rising Sun students stormed the field to celebrate and lifted Thomas off the ground and carried him for several yards. It was a special moment for the senior co-captain Thomas, who had a sensational freshman season before missing the last two years because of two serious knee injuries. "I missed it," Thomas said of his absence. "It was just good to get back. It was a lot of work and I think I'm getting back to being at my best. It's good just to play again." It's not often that the player who gets the game-winning score begins the game as the goalie but that's what happened Tuesday, Catena made two saves as Tigers' coach Ken Ulrich started all 11 of his seniors. Rising Sun's comeback overshadowed a spectacular performance by North East's Lane Schmidt. The Indians' senior scored all three of his team's goals. The first came on a penalty kick with 23 minutes left in the first half. Schmidt scored again 11 minutes later to make it 2-0. Thomas put the Tigers on the board less than four minutes later on a blast from outside with Catena picking up an assist. Schmidt upped the Indians' advantage to 3-1 25 seconds into the second stanza. He worked his way through several Rising Sun defenders on an outstanding individual effort. Down 3-1 and with the wind at their backs, the Tigers dominated the rest of the game. Thomas headed home a corner kick taken by Jeff Haley to narrow the gap to one with 31:45 left. With 17:02 left in the game, the Tigers tied it on a goal by Kane Watson. Outside the box, Watson directed a hard shot toward the goal and it slightly deflected off a player on its way into the net. It was Watson who headed in the game-winner in the first meeting between the two teams which was won by the same 4-3 score. Rising Sun kept up the pressure following Watson's tying goal and it paid off with Catena's header nine minutes later. Comments are closed.
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