EDW Cards suffer season-ender to Falcons 2-1

E.D. White and St. Thomas Aquinas are quickly becoming bitter rivals on the soccer field. A year ago, the Falcons eliminated E.D. White from the Regional round of the playoffs via a 3-1 overtime victory.

This year, the teams did not go to overtime, but the result was the same. For 72 minutes, the Cardinals led 1-0, but St. Thomas Aquinas scored two goals in the final eight minutes to steal a 2-1 victory from the Cardinals.

Other local action saw Central Lafourche lose to Brother Martin, 4-0, and H.L. Bourgeois lose to Rummel, 1-0. Vandebilt kept its state-championship hopes alive by defeating Chalmette, 3-0.

Vandebilt is the only area team remaining in the playoffs. They faced Pineville on the road on Tuesday, and results were not available as of press time.

E.D. White head coach Roger Bimah said it is difficult to lose a playoff game in the final seconds.

“Very, very tough game to lose,” he said. “First half, we played very solid soccer. Second half, the game opened up a little bit, and they came out fired up and ready to play. We had some chances and we didn’t capitalize. They had some chances and they made it. That’s the way soccer is. It’s a very, very cruel game, and whenever you make mistakes, the other team will step up and punish you. That’s what they did today.”

With the Cardinals leading 1-0, Brian Wong received a pass and dribbled past a defender before placing a shot in the back of the net to tie it 1-1 in the 72nd minute.

From there, it appeared the teams were poised to go to overtime. But seconds before the final whistle, Wong took a corner kick that deflected off of an E.D. White player into the goal.

The Cardinals did not have time to answer, and were eliminated from the playoffs.

Falcons head coach John Cox said the difference in the game came in adding more attackers throughout. After starting the game with just one attacker, Cox moved another player into the attack and by the end of the game had three strikers at the top of the formation.

“That, basically, I feel was the difference in the game,” he said. “It could have gone either way. Credit E.D. White. Just the fact that we threw numbers at them helped us to get back in the game.”

In the beginning portion of the game, it did not take the Cardinals long to get on the board. In the 5th minute, Beau Cheramie took a corner kick that Daniel Pharo headed into the back of the net.

From there, both teams failed to put the ball in the back of the net. St. Thomas Aquinas applied pressure in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but E.D White weathered the storm.

“After we absorbed the 10 minutes of pressure, we had a ton of chances,” said Bimah. “We just didn’t finish. That’s the way the ball bounces.”