Tuscaloosa Academy’s rally falls short in Final Four
St. Luke’s Episcopal’s Chatman Stephenson scored the game-winner with less than two minutes remaining, as Wildcats beat Tuscaloosa Academy, 4-3 to advance to the championship match in Class 1A-3A.
St. Luke’s (21-5-2) will play Tanner (22-5) in the finals. Tuscaloosa Academy (18-6-1) finishes an impressive run in its first season of competition in the AHSAA.
TA trailed 3-1 at halftime before a second half flurry erased the deficit. The Knights Anton Schmidt scored two goals in less than three minutes to tie the match, 3-3 just 16 minutes into the second half. Tuscaloosa Academy’s Yakut Eksin assisted on both Schmidt’s goals.
Schmidt scored all three of TA’s goals.
“They were going to leave it all on the field. That is exactly what they did,” said Tuscaloosa Academy head coach Morgan Wilson. “They didn’t just curl up and beat them 3-0 or 4-0. They came back and almost went into overtime, and then we could have gone to penalty kicks. Unfortunately they got that last goal.”
Tuscaloosa Academy goalkeeper Walker McKee had six saves in the match. Both teams registered 13 shots on goal.
