CATAWISSA R.R. - Southern Columbia is cutting it down to the wire.
The Tigers could have clinched a District 4 playoff berth with a win over Millville on Tuesday, and played well enough, but dropped a 2-0 decision to the Quakers at Southern. The Tigers fell to 8-8-1 and have one game left, at St. John Neumann on Thursday.
Richard Wood scored both goals for the Quakers, and the second one hurt the most. Wood scored on a penalty kick with just five minutes remaining in the game after a questionable pushing call. That kick came just several minutes after the Tigers' Dylan Swank lofted a penalty kick of his own high over the crossbar.
"Making that penalty kick may have changed the momentum a little," Southern coach Dave Hall said. "Dylan's done a real good job with penalty kicks all season. Sometimes that just happens."
Wood's first goal came at the 30:33 mark off a corner kick by Chase Laubach and climaxed a half in which Southern seemed a little disjointed.
"I thought our play in the midfield area was better in the second half than it was in the first," Hall said. "Defensively we were solid all day. Millville's a very athletic, well coached team. I'm proud of the kids. They've really come together as a team. Some of them are playing soccer this year for the first time in several years. I think we'll be a difficult out for any team in the tournament to play if we get in. The last three games we've lost, to Benton, Central Columbia and today, we've played well.
"But we still need one more. We have to come out and play well on Thursday."
Millville 1 1 - 2
Southern (8-8-1) 0 0 - 0
M - Richard Wood (Chase Laubach), 30:33
M - Wood, penalty kick, 75:00
Shots on goal: Millville 13, Southern 6; Corner Kicks: Millville 5, Southern 4; Keeper/Saves: Millville (Logan Heffner) 3, Southern (Tyler Behrent) 8.