BROOKVILLE — A banner year for Tri-County North’s boys soccer team came to a close the same way the season began — with a 3-1 loss to Brookville.
The second defeat was in the first round of the Division III sectional tournament on Tuesday, Oct. 19 at Brookville.
The Panthers, winners of the newly formed Western Ohio Athletic Conference, finished the season with an 11-6 record.
“We knew it was gonna be tough coming in. They beat us by this same score last time,” North coach Dylan Hemmerich said. “I thought with a couple switches and a couple guys healthy we’d be able to hang. At the end there we we’re just pushing hard on offense and one squeezed through. It was a tough one.”
The Blue Devils scored in the 10th minute for a 1-0 lead and added a goal at the 34:53 in the first half to take a 2-0 lead.
North finally got on the board with a goal from Conner Evans at the 16:44 mark of the second half to cut the lead to 2-1.
However, the Blue Devils took advantage of an aggressive North team and scored with 6:17 remaining.
The Panthers went 7-1 over their final eight regular season games, including taking a five match winning streak into the tournament.
“That’s hands down the best season we’ve ever had,” Hemmerich said. “I talked to the guys about where we come from, how far we’ve come, all that good stuff and as far as I could see we tied the best record North’s ever had. Everybody this year stepped up, filled their holes that we needed filled. This whole season, all around, was great. We would have even better record if we weren’t sick at the beginning, but it what it is.”
