By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Campbell County scored three goals in the final 16 minutes of the first half and came away with a 3-2 win over Somerset in the first round of the boys soccer state playoffs on Tuesday in Alexandria.
The Camels will face Lexington Henry Clay in the quarterfinal round that’s scheduled to be played Thursday. Henry Clay edged Covington Catholic, 2-1, in another first round game on Tuesday to prevent a matchup between Northern Kentucky teams.
Quarterfinal games in the boys and girls state soccer playoffs are supposed to be played on Thursday. But that could be adjusted since Campbell County has a team in each bracket.
In the first-round game on Tuesday, Somerset took a 1-0 lead in the opening minutes on a goal by Tyler Absure and maintained it until Campbell County’s scoring flurry late in the first half.
The Camels’ first goal came on a running header by senior Zach Franzen on a ball lofted into the box by sophomore Josh Bloomfield with 16:01 left in the half.
Nine minutes later, freshman Mesfin Brown got to a loose ball in front of the goal and put it the net to score the tiebreaker.
Campbell County extended its lead to 3-1 on a scoring play that began with sophomore Blake Minor winning the ball near midfield and ended with him drilling a shot past the goalkeeper off a lead pass by Bloomfield.
This is the third time the Campbell County boys team has made it to the playoffs as the 10th Region champion under head coach Kyle Newman. The Camels lost in the first round in 2016 and made it to the quarterfinals in 2017.
CovCath had scored 17 goals in its three 9th Region tournament victories, but the only one the Colonels managed to get against Henry Clay was by junior Cole Bishop, who put them ahead 1-0 with 15 minutes remaining in the first half.
The score was tied, 1-1, at halftime and it stayed that way until Henry Clay junior Braden Cundiff got past CovCath’s back line and angled a shot past CovCath’s goalkeeper with 10 minutes left in the game.
This will be the first time since 1999 that a 9th Region boys soccer team hasn’t made it to the final four in the state playoffs.