All Windsor junior forward Tanner Berry had to do was use his head.
Senior back Jake Mahon took a free kick that Berry used his forehead to guide past Hillsboro goalkeeper Seth Oshia for the game-winning goal in the Owls’ 2-1 overtime victory over the Hawks in the Class 3 District 2 championship on Thursday in a constant cold rain.
“I was moving around so they couldn’t catch me,” said Berry, who leads Windsor with 16 goals this season. “I was backpedaling around and it was a great ball by Jake.”
It’s the Owls’ second straight district championship win against Hillsboro, which concluded the season with a record of 9-11-2. Windsor (the No. 2 seed in the district; Hillsboro was No. 1) avenged a 4-1 defeat in the regular season to the Hawks and improved to 14-11-1.
“It’s all on the boys,” Windsor head coach Chris Krueger said. “I’m lucky enough to have a front-row seat to watch them succeed and pull together as a team.”
Farmington (16-3) beat Cape Girardeau Central 6-1 in the Class 3 District 1 final and will play Windsor on Tuesday in the sectional round of the playoffs. The site and time have yet to be determined. The Knights and Owls did not play in the regular season, but Farmington shut out Hillsboro 7-0 in October.
After a scoreless first half at Hillsboro, senior forward Isaac Readnour played a ball into Windsor’s goal box and it was re-directed into the Owls’ goal by Mahon for an own goal at 56:49 and the Hawks led 1-0.
Oshia tripped Berry as he played the ball through the Hawks’ goal box and the Owls were awarded a penalty kick at 57:31. Mahon took the PK and scored to tie the game 1-1. Mahon stepped up into the attack on several possessions and took most of the team’s free kicks.
Krueger said Mahon has been a team leader all season.
“He’s putting guys in position and he’s very vocal,” Krueger said. “He’s done a great job offensively for us, but it’s his defense we appreciate him more for.
"We practice PKs every day, so it’s about continuing the process.”
Oshia made a brilliant save on a head ball in the goal box minutes before the end of regulation to help send the game to OT.
“He’s real quick back there,” Hillsboro head coach Chris Schacht said about his keeper. “He’s better on those than normal saves. On the goal they scored in regulation, it was a poor pass from our midfield and Seth slid out for the ball and because of the conditions, slid out too far. It wasn’t Seth’s fault. It was the conditions on the field.”
It rained the entire game and the players did their best on a slick field. Instead of using long, quick passes, the Hawks and Owls tried ball control with several passes to build the attack.
Junior midfielder Mark Moore set a Hillsboro single-season mark with 17 assists this season. Moore led the Hawks with 22 goals this season, and he tried to find Readnour on several occasions on the transition.
“I thought we dominated possession,” said Schacht, who led the Hawks to a district crown over the Owls in 2016. “We had almost 200 passes in the first half. That’s the way soccer is, you can dominate a lot of the game, but not win it on the scoreboard.”