COLUMBIANA — On a cold and rainy Tuesday night at Crestview, fans were treated to some free soccer, as a winner could not be determined between the No. 1 seeded Crestview Rebels and the No. 4 seeded South Range Raiders in 80 minutes. However, three and a half minutes into the overtime period, it was the South Range Raiders that put the ball in the back of the net and came away with a 2-1 victory in a boys soccer Division III district semifinal showdown.

For South Range (11-5-2), it was captain Camden Thomas who took a corner kick from Caden McConnell and got above the Rebel defenders to get his head squarely on the ball and win the game for the Raiders. It was Thomas’s team-leading 22nd goal of the season.

“Crestview is big and they got a lot of big bodies in there,” Thomas said. “Caden played a great ball in and I just rose above and headed it. I tried to head it on frame, knowing that it would be a tough one to save and got very fortunate.”

Safe to say for Thomas, it was all kind of a whirlwind.

“I am kind of at a loss for words right now,” Thomas said.

The night did not get off to a great start for the Raiders, as they went down 1-0 before fans were even comfortable in their seats.

Crestview standout sophomore Nick Novak took a great leading pass into the box and used his speed to get enough separation from the Raiders defenders to score the first goal of the night just over a minute into the contest. This was Novak’s 36th goal of the season.

“We would never give up,” South Range coach Zach Stamp said. “On any team or any game. We would work until the clock stops every single time I promise.

“Crestview is one of the best teams we have played all year,” Stamp said. “Hats off to them for giving us a game like that. They are the one seed and you have to beat the best to be the best and that is what we want to do and we will move onto Saturday and hope to come away with a district championship.”

The rest of the first half was both teams exchanging opportunities, but nether were able to break through due in large part to some stellar goalkeeping from South Range’s Bradon Johnson and Crestview’s Sean Helpy.

With 16 minutes left in the first half, Crestview’s Cutter Crane went down with a leg injury that would keep him out for the remainder of the contest.

In the second half, South Range had a couple more opportunities that were turned away by Selby. Then, with nine minutes left in the game, Kaleb Sepe was able to equalize the game for the Raiders.

“Whenever we play South Range, it’s always a battle and back and forth,” Crestview coach Jonathan Kinkead said. “They are well coached and it’s a great program. We scored really early and we held momentum at times and they held momentum at times and it was just one of those things that we let our guard down for a couple seconds and they equalized it.

“You gotta play the whole game and focus the whole game and can’t let your guard down against quality teams. That is how it goes unfortunately.”

Thomas says his team has excelled in the second half and did their best to make sure this wasn’t the last game.

“The whole season we have been a second half team and we run a lot at practice just for moments like these, an overtime game in the playoffs,” Thomas said. “We just fight through adversity. We are a band of brothers and we love each other. We play for each other. We rallied together in that last 10-15 minutes because we didn’t want our season to be over.”

Crestview finishes 15-1-1 and earned the No. 1 seed in their bracket.

“We had a great season,” Kinkead said. “These guys worked their butts off this season. We overcame several injuries this year. 2020 just keeps coming at us in different ways. You saw the injury today and we have to shift guys around and shorten up our bench even more. It’s been a great season and I tried telling these guys that when you lose a game like this, it doesn’t take away the broader picture of what you accomplished.

“Unfortunately, you lose in a big game but at the end of the day, everybody loses but one team in Division III. We went out guns blazing. We tried our best and we gave it our best effort and unfortunately only one team leaves happy every night.”

No. 3 seed Kinsman Badger defeated No. 9 seed Orwell Grand Valley 5-1 on Tuesday night and will host South Range for the district final on Saturday at 1 pm.

“We play a harder schedule and we play mostly Division II teams so I haven’t seen Badger or Grand Valley but I know if we come out and play like this, there are going to be very few teams who can beat us,” Stamp said.