CARTHAGE, Mo. — Carthage saw its impressive run through the district tournament come to an end on Thursday after top-seeded Kickapoo scored twice in the first half and added another goal early in the second half on the way to a 3-0 win over the sixth-seeded Tigers in the Class 4 District 5 championship game at David Haffner Stadium.
“I am very proud of the way we played,” Carthage coach Jacob Osborne said. “We went through the three seed and went through the two seed, and both of those games were come-from-behind wins (in overtime). We were the lowest seed still left in the state in any district, and that wasn’t a surprise to me. It was kind of a half joke when the seeding came out, but I told my assistants that we were the best sixth seed in the state and that was before the tournament started.”
Carthage closes the year with a 14-10 record while making it to its first district title appearance since 2017.
“They didn’t give up,” Osborne said about his team’s season. “They had heart and had belief, they just fell a little short.”
Carthage graduates seniors Emanuel Juarez, Chris Lopez-Carreto, Dani Morales Hernandez, Andrew Grimm, Adrian Garrido Reyes, Clismer Lopez-Carreto, Walter Mejia-Cancinos, Keneth Paxtor Mejia, Luis Mejia Rodas, Jonathan Coreas Perez and Tyler Jacob Howard.
“It’s a very good group, a very talented group,” Osborne said of the senior class. “I am disappointed for them. I wanted to see them get that district title. There are going to be some very tough kids to replace on the field.”
Kickapoo will play District 6 champion Blue Springs on Nov. 13.
The Chiefs jumped in front of Carthage just past the midway point of the first half when Nicholas McDiarmid gained possession in close and fired the ball to the back of the net for a 1-0 lead in the 25th minute of action.
The Chiefs moved up 2-0 when Liam Olson converted for a goal in the 34th minute to send Kickapoo into the intermission with a two-goal lead.
Kickapoo tripled up the lead inside the first minute of play in the second half when Landon Keisker found the back of the net to push the lead to 3-0.
“The game got really choppy,” Osborne said. “In the second half, there was really no flow to it at all, which played right into their style. They are a foot taller than us across the board and have speed all over the field. If we are playing set pieces, just launching the ball up the field, that is an advantage for them. It made it so we couldn’t play our normal style of short, quick passes to move the ball.”
