The Hopkinsville boys’ soccer team picked up two wins on Saturday to punch its ticket to Sunday’s championship game of the Boots and Butts Soccer Classic at the Stadium of Champions. The Tigers opened play with a 3-1 victory over Campbell County, before topping Apollo 4-3 in the evening game. They have now won three-straight to improve to 7-2 overall, and will have a chance to avenge a couple of losses from last season to Warren Central when the teams meet in the championship game on Sunday.
Hopkinsville fell behind 1-0 when goalkeeper Xavier Bussell made a save on a penalty kick 10 minutes into the game, but was unable to keep out the rebound. The Tigers trailed most of the first half until Ryan Roussel found the back of the net to tie it up going into the halftime break.
Eight minutes into the second half Tyler Greenwell smacked a long-range shot past the Camels’ keeper to give the Tigers a 2-1 advantage. Roussel tormented the Camels on the wing all game, and provided the assist to Zach Bryant to double the margin at 3-1 with 24 minutes left. The Tiger defense saw things out from there and they moved on to face Apollo, shootout winners over West Jessamine, later Saturday evening.
Just as they had against Campbell County, the Tigers found themselves behind early against Apollo when Harrison Bowman took advantage of a miscommunication in the Hoptown defense to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. Once again Roussel had the answer, finding the back of the net 8 minutes later to tie the game. However, with just over 10 minutes left in the half, Wesley Knott cleaned up a loose ball in the box off a corner to restore the Eagles’ lead.
Roussel would not be denied, tying the game 6 minutes into the second half before giving the Tigers their first lead of the match with 14 minutes to play. Only two minutes later, Zach Moore curled in a beautiful free kick to give the Tigers some breathing room at 4-2. With the game winding down Knott pulled one back for the Eagles, but Hoptown held on to set up the rematch with Warren Central on Sunday.