By Matt Overing
and Nancy Leedy

DANVILLE — The Lincoln County High School boys soccer team failed in its quest to unseat defending 45th District champion Danville, falling 5-1 in the district tournament title game Wednesday at Boyle County.

The Admirals scored three goals in the first 18 minutes to take a commanding lead of the game, with goals from Briar Sanders, Angel Alaves and Sam Brunner.

“We told them, Danville capitalized when we made a mistake,” Lincoln head coach Lewis Cummins said. “Then when they made a mistake, we weren’t able to capitalize. That was a big difference. We knew Danville would throw numbers at us but they were excellent finishing tonight. Early on I think we were too defensive, the ball stayed on their offensive end too much. That allowed them more opportunities to score.”

Sanders tallied the first goal of the game then notched career assist No. 44 on the third goal, a free kick that Brunner met squarely and drove into the net.

Danville’s second goal was one that Admiral coach Brent Beauman was thrilled to see. Nathan Hazlett played a through ball to Alec McAllister on the left, who drove past the Lincoln defense and squared the ball to Alaves for an easy score.

“We have worked on those things for 10 years,” Beauman said. “Almost every time we do it in a game, we score. Because it’s a great play, you see it in professional soccer all the time. That outside guy has the ball, he’s going to the near post, keeper has to cover near post. That’s his job. Then you slide it back and that guy’s always open.”

But the Admirals let off of the gas late in the first half, and Lincoln capitalized. It was the soccer Patriots’ second shot on target that resulted in a goal: Hawk Randall found an open Austin Wethington, who struck it into the back of the net. The soccer Patriots trailed 3-1 with just two minutes left in the first half.

Despite repeated attempts by Lincoln to cut into the Danville lead, the Admirals’ defense held strong. Beauman said he was proud of the way Sam and Seth Brunner — defensive midfielder and center back, respectively — shut down Lincoln’s top two goalscorers in Trey Cummins and Randall.

“We had talked about transition, because that’s pretty much how Lincoln scored Monday against Boyle,” Beauman said. “Trey Cummins is a phenomenal player. For him to not take over the game like he’s done so many other times was great. Tres (Walker) was solid, Jesus (Ayala) had a tough job covering bigger, physical guys but he did an outstanding job disrupting what they wanted to do. Sam being the defensive mid helped a lot. I said as soon as we lose the ball, one finds Hawk, one finds Trey. They did it, they did a good job.”

Danville would add two goals in the second half, a penalty kick from Hazlett and a tap-in by McAllister.

Both Lincoln County and Danville advanced to the 12th Region tournament, played at 46th District champion West Jessamine.

“The good part is, this is a learning game,” coach Cummins said. “Example, last year Mercer and West in the same district were in the region finals. If we come ready, anything can happen. But I was proud of the boys effort all night, they fought hard all night. Now the next couple days we get ready for region.”Note: The soccer Patriots played their first-round 12th Region Tournament game Wednesday night. Results from the game were unavailable at press time.