The Todd County Central Rebels got absolutely the best start they could have hoped for at Saturday’s 4th Region All A boys’ soccer semifinals on their home pitch in Elkton. The problem was that Avery Flener was on the field on the other side for the Russellville Panthers.
Flener scored seven goals to erase an early 4-0 Todd County Central lead and carry the Panthers to a 7-5 win. At times, Flener appeared to simply have his way on the field and the Rebels had no answer when it came to the question of how to slow him down.
The Rebels came charging out at the start of the match, scoring four goals in the first 25 minutes to take a 4-0 lead. Ivan Lopez, Tanner Robinson, Chris Salazar, and Jaxson Addison all found the nets during the Rebels’ run to open the match.
The match appeared to swing towards Russellville when the Panthers, or rather Avery Flener broke through just 25-seconds after Todd Central took the 4-0 lead. Flener just rocketed a shot into the net at the 34:15 mark to trim the lead to 4-2. Flener would score again less than four minutes later to make it 4-3 going into the break.
While the Rebels had the lead, every bit of momentum at that point was on the Russellville sideline. And that momentum stayed right there as the second half got underway.
A spinning shot from Flener right in front of the net at 44:20 evened the match at 4-4. Just 40 seconds later, Flener again blasted a shot from the right side to put Russellville in front for the first time at 5-4.
Todd Central momentarily staved off the avalanche of goals from Flener at 57:30 when Chris Salazar took a pass from Tanner Henderson and scored his second goal of the day to tie the match again at 5-5.
But in the end, Avery Flener was just too much on this day for the Rebels to handle. Flener scored at 66:00 and again at 72:40 to slam the door on any Todd Central rally.
The Rebels are set to be back in action Tuesday when they go on the road to take on Logan County.
The Panthers would go on later in the day to win the 4th Region All A title, defeating Glasgow in penalty kicks.
