Regina wears down Solon

SOLON - Regina moved the ball swiftly, right to left, forward and back and essentially played keep away from Solon. It was probably inevitable that the chase tired the Spartans, who eventually gave up two goals in the final seven minutes to fall, 2-0, Saturday.

The Spartans (5-7) survived the first 14 minutes of the first half when goalkeeper Logan Linderbaum made save after save against the relentless Regal attack.

'He does a great job. He's got a nose for the ball,” Solon Coach Jeremy McMurrin said. 'He's not afraid of contact. We thought once we survived the first 10 minutes we were OK because I think the last time they played here they scored in the first 40 seconds.”

At half it was tied at zero, and it took until there were only 6 minutes, 53 seconds remaining in the game before the Spartans gave up the first goal.

'We knew they had a really good defense, and it would take awhile to crack it,” Emilio Tovar said. 'You just can't get frustrated when you don't get the opportunities you want. You just have to keep breaking them down. Eventually they'll get tired and we'll break through.”

Tovar had a breakaway with defender Adam Nelson-Ockenfels in pursuit.

Nelson-Ockenfels was able to boot the ball away, but it went over the end line for a corner kick.

Tovar put the ball in play immediately to Nicholas Pechous, who was just a few feet away. Pechous dribbled parallel to the end line in between defenders and finally got a shot at the goal to score.

'We practice it a lot,” Pechous said. 'They weren't ready for it. They didn't have many guys back. I saw that I could turn and then I cut back and I saw their guy was flat-footed so I knew I could cut back and go between two defenders.”

With the ice broken Regina (4-3) got its second goal only 74 seconds later from Tovar.

McMurrin said he didn't really intend to play as conservatively as it appeared.

'You know they're going to be dangerous going forward,” he said. 'Things that have cost us this year is just being undisciplined in defending.

'Did we pack it in? No we really didn't. They just had it on our half of the field, to be completely honest.”