Staff photo / Neel Madhavan. Champion's Evan Tilley (27) makes a pass during the Flashes' district final match on Saturday.

CANFIELD — Champion had faced just one multi-goal deficit all season — until Saturday.

The Golden Flashes were unable to overcome a two-goal first half deficit, as they fell 5-1 to Kidron Central Christian in the Division V, Northeast 4 district final in Canfield.

“I told this team that the bottom line is that they haven’t lost since Sept. 3,” Champion head coach Shawnn Wilson said. “They’ve been rolling. They broke some records at the school. They got to this point, and we knew, especially with the new bracket and everything, that it’s not going to come easy. But they never gave up. And that’s the main thing that we were proud of, this team doesn’t give up.”

With how the Comets dominated possession, especially in the first half, Champion struggled to build any momentum to try to create attacking chances of its own.

Central Christian’s first goal came six minutes into the game courtesy of Josiah Bixler.

Then with 12 minutes till halftime, Bixler scored again by pouncing on a rebound of a shot that was saved and parried by Flashes goalkeeper Ty Horm.

“We knew coming into this game that they’re a well-organized passing team,” Wilson said. “They take quick shots. They play a little bit different style in that (attacking) area, and that’s what you’re going to see when you start playing these games.”

Trailing 2-0 at halftime, Champion made some changes tactically and formationally to try to get back into the game.

The Flashes were able to see more of the ball in the second half by changing to a diamond midfield setup.

“We made some adjustments in the second half,” Wilson said. “We were trying to counter when they had everybody up and we started to push them back. We wanted to push them back as far as we could because they were shoving everybody forward. But it didn’t go that way.”

Champion was able to hold the Comets off at first, but Central Christian added to its lead in the 58th minute when Aidan Munholand beat Horm and went around him for the finish into the back of the net.

The Flashes finally broke through about two minutes after Munholand’s goal, as Hunter Maylone broke free past the Comets’ defense on a counterattack and scored.

“I just told them at halftime — being down 2-0 to a team like this, we’ve been in worse situations, and you just have to find a way to get one in,” Wilson said. “Once you do that, you start getting rejuvenated. The game before us, it was 3-1 at halftime and we all saw what happened in that one. They came back and went to double overtime. So anything’s possible. We don’t give up.”

Even as Champion was able to create some chances, it wasn’t able to match Central Christian’s attacking precision.

With about 16 minutes left, Silas Coleman extended the Comets’ lead back to three with a shot from the edge of the box that was misplayed and went between the goalkeeper’s legs.

Central Christian put the nail in the coffin with their fifth and final goal, this time by Grayden Miller, with just two minutes left.

Champion ends the season 15-3-2, but graduates five key seniors from this year’s squad. “Unfortunately we’re losing our seniors, but we’re also young still,” Wilson said. “Some of these younger guys got the experience of what it feels like being in a district final and what it takes to get to a district final, and hopefully they can carry that on to see what it takes to win.”