Sophomore Luke McElroy scored with under two minutes left in double-overtime to send Madisonville past University Heights 3-2 in the opener of the Second Region Tournament Monday at the Stadium of Champions. Both teams appeared headed to a round of penalty kicks to decide the game until UHA cleared a pass in front of the Madisonville net where Kael Knight found McElroy for the game-winner. It was the second goal of the night for McElroy.
After both teams were scoreless for the first 11 minutes of the contest, four goals were scored in the next six minutes – two by each team.
UHA’s Ian Calvert got the scoring started with a penalty kick at the 11-minute mark. Will McClure answered for Madisonville three minutes later to knot the game at 1-1. McElroy scored three minutes later to give the Maroons a 2-1 lead. Calvert finished the first half scoring with a free kick from 25 yards that found the back of the net.
UHA (12-8-2) entered the region tournament winners of five of their last six matches. They had lost to Madisonville 7-1 back on September 25. The Blazers were looking for their first region tourney win in four years and their first win over Madisonville since 2004.
Madisonville (10-8-1) will play Webster County (13-6-1) in a 6pm semifinal Tuesday.
