High school boys soccer: Tie with Firelands gives Lutheran West Stripes title

It was only appropriate that a hard-fought, physical game between two of the top teams in their respective divisions came down to the final minute.

With Firelands down a man, Lutheran West senior Sam Kasputis scored on a free kick with 26 seconds left in regulation as the ninth-ranked team in the Division III state poll and top team in the Patriot Athletic Conference Stripes Division forced a 1-1 tie with the host Falcons on Oct. 1.

“We knew going in Firelands is a great program,” Lutheran West (10-1-2, 7-0-1) coach Joshua Hubeler said. “They’ve been building their program over the last couple of years. Unfortunately, they went down a man … we were able to capitalize on it.”

Firelands (10-2-1, 6-0-1), which is atop the Stars Division, took a 1-0 lead later in the first half when Patrick Brightbill scored after a free kick by John Gall. The rest of the half and the beginning part of the second half remained scoreless, while the physical play continued.

The physical play reached a climax when Firelands’ Casey Krueger was given a red card after he took down a Lutheran West player. The red card put Firelands down a man for the next 25 minutes. In addition, seven yellow cards were issued.

Though the Longhorns had the man advantage, they were unable to get a lot of scoring opportunities. When they did, Firelands goalie Corey Jones was there to make the stop.

As the final minute started to wind down, the pace became frantic. Goalie Max Kasputis came out and down to the offensive end as time wound down.

A penalty was called and gave the Longhorns a free kick. Sam Kasputis took the free kick and lofted it toward the goal. The ball came down, bounced around and ended up behind Jones to tie the game with 26 seconds left.

“On every restart, I’m always on the ball and I’m not looking to shoot,” Sam Kasputis said. “I saw a lot of people in the box and I thought if I can just put it in there, I know one of my teammates can put it in. It didn’t have to be a teammate. It could have been one of them (a Firelands player). It went in and that is all that matters.”

The tie assures Lutheran West the Stripes Division championship. Coming back from a deficit to force a tie and claim the Stripes Division championship completes one part of a season’s long journey.

“It (championship) means a lot,” Sam Kasputis said. “We worked really hard this season. We were down and we still went 100 percent.”

While Sam Kasputis was the offensive hero, his brother Max was the hero defensively, especially early on. Just three minutes into the game, Max made a diving save on a Krueger shot. Two other chances went awry before Brightbill broke the scoreless deadlock.

Though down a man for most of the second half, Firelands coach Jim Fossie was proud of the effort his players gave.

“The guys that were on the field just played with tremendous effort after we got the red card,” Fossie said. “They played for each other. They played hard and wanted to win. That’s the game of soccer. The ball is going to bounce … you have to be ready for a 1,000 different decisions you have to make.

“We will learn from this. It going to be a teaching moment for us.”

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