WEBB CITY, Mo. — The Webb City Cardinals and the McDonald County Mustangs were approaching 100 minutes of scoreless soccer when Webb City junior forward Joseph Wermuth connected with the perfect header past McDonald County junior goalkeeper Tomas De La Cruz in the 98th minute for the 1-0 victory in the regular-season finale for both teams at Cardinal Stadium.
Webb City and McDonald County each had their opportunities to score through 80 minutes of regulation, 10 minutes of the first overtime, and seven minutes of the second overtime.
“I think we wore them down,” Webb City coach Nick Harmon said. “They’re a strong team, very hard to play, but I think we have a lot more depth that we were able to rotate in and out of the game. In the end, I think that made the difference, it allowed our guys to still be going strong in the end and find a way to score.”
The Cardinals avoided going into penalty kicks for what would have been the fourth time overall this season and second time in a row this week after Tuesday’s road loss against Central Ozark Conference foe Republic.
“We’ve been through three shootouts already this year,” Harmon said. “Won two and lost one, and the one we lost was Tuesday night this week, so I think the guys were motivated to not let it go to chance again and get the job done in OT.”
The Cardinals played nearly 200 minutes of soccer in the final week of the regular season between their matches against Republic and Webb City.
“It’s a good way to end the season with two competitive matches,” Harmon said. “It feels good to come out on top (Thursday).”
Webb City finished the regular season 10-11 overall, and the Cardinals are both district host and top seed in the Class 3 District 6 tournament starting on Saturday.
“We’re confident,” Harmon said. “We’re excited to see the boys compete. We like our matchups and everybody’s healthy, so the ball’s in our court and we’ve got to go out and perform and work hard for each other and execute.”
Webb City opens against No. 8 Kansas City Ruskin (4-11) in the quarterfinals at 11 a.m.
The Mustangs (5-13) are the sixth seed, and they open Saturday against third-seeded Belton (8-8) in the fourth and final quarterfinal match of the day.
No. 4 Bolivar (9-11) and No. 5 Grandview (11-8) play after Webb City-Ruskin and No. 2 Willard (14-10) and No. 7 Carl Junction (5-17) play in the third quarterfinal match.
Neosho’s departure to Class 4 opens up this district to a new district champion.
