Wow, i refrained from going into full detail only not to get destroyed and flamed on this thread. Good god. this was a horrendous game. Norwalk coach Dustin Kralik was not present. Credit Newton for sticking in it the entire game. Norwalk had 3 or 4 yellow cards, a huge on in 2OT being Brian Michelson. He went shoulder to shoulder and got all ball on a challenge and absolutely annihilated #12 from Newton and got carded. This comes about 15 minutes after a slide tackle from behind in the box by Newton that goes "Advantage" in Newton's favor when Newton never even touched the ball. Those are besides the point.
As far as the goal goes: Call me crazy but Newton had a cross go into the box that Norwalk goalkeeper Ben Smiley got both hands on. He falls FORWARD on the ground around the 6yrd box. There is a newton player in the goal and Smiley drops the ball in the 6box and Norwalk clears it to half. Newton is passing the ball around for what seems like forever only to hear a whistle blow about 10 seconds later and somehow a goal is awarded from the AR.
PS: I'm a certified referee and i do know the rules and i do have 20/20 vision. This was absolutely erroneous and horrendous all at once.
I talked to senior Gabe Crall after the game. exact words from his mouth: "We want something bigger then this." [In regards to the state championship]
Losses like these suck, especially for a team that has won conference at least the last 5-6 years in a row [I've been a part of 4 of those]
So it was frustrating to watch. Norwalk got awarded a PK very early for clearing Eric May out. Ideally, there should have been about 2-3 more PK's in Norwalk's favor awarded. This ref was afraid to make the call. the game was out of his league.
Once again, credit Newton's team for playing all out. They actually had a pretty good team and played their guts out against an incredibly talented norwalk team. So NO ONE can take Newton's effort away from them. Great job by both teams; effin terrible job by the men in yellow!
=> LHC Fan