Saints drop thriller to Lions
The Xavier boys soccer team was short-handed Tuesday night with two of its top players unable to play against Linn-Mar, but there was nothing short-handed about their spirit and determination.
The Saints fell to the Lions, 2-1, in a marathon PK shootout that took nine players to decide at Linn-Mar Stadium.
Xavier is ranked No. 2 in Class 2A and Linn-Mar is ranked No. 16 in Class 3A, but there wasn't much difference between the two Mississippi Valley Conference powers on a drizzly night in Marion.
Thomas Bean, who leads the Saints in scoring, had to serve a one-game suspension after receiving a red card in Xavier's last match against Cedar Rapids Washington when he said something to a friend on the Washington team that apparently was misinterpreted by an official.
Will Hannigan, the No. 3 scorer for the Saints, missed the match with an injury suffered last week against Iowa City West, taking another top player off the field.
The Saints simply shuffled a few players around and came within a whisker of winning the match.
"We stretched as much as we could in the game," said Xaiver Coach Amir Hadzic. "We had as many open looks as Linn-Mar had. Too bad those shots - Luke's particularly - didn't go in. That's a hard deal."
