Boys soccer: Freshman Jackson Mason sends Princeton to a tie on Senior Night

It was Senior Night on Monday at the Bryant Field pitch, but Princeton soccer coach David Gray turned to a freshman with the game on the line.

Jackson Mason, one of the many Tiger cubs on the Princeton varsity, knocked a strong penalty kick past the Kewanee keeper to the right side of the goal to tie the match at 4-4 with four minutes remaining.

His score proved to be the last of the night as both Three Rivers teams walked away happy in a draw.

“He buries them all the time in practice. He’s pretty consistent,” Gray said. “I wasn’t too worried about it. The only thing I worried about was if the moment would be too big. His heart rate got up a little too high. But he handled it. Calm finishing, that’s what you want to see.

“We have other guys we have confidence in, but just seeing what Jackson does in practice, he’s been automatic. Let’s get the goal.”

Matthew Sims, one of five PHS seniors honored before the game along with classmates Isaiah Sandoval, Brandon Stopka, Niklas Schneider, Matthew Sims and Michael Smallwood, said it was a good feeling to walk away with a tie on Senior Night if they couldn’t get the win.

“Coming in to this tonight, we knew we we’re going to have fun,” he said. “It was Senior Night. We always want to have fun. See what we do. We came out very strong tonight. The fans were here. It was exciting.

“We could have gotten the last goal there in the end, but a tie’s a tie.”

The Tigers and Boilers played to a 1-1 halftime tie with Matthew Sims scoring for the Tigers in the 38th minute.

“I was not expecting it to go in. I crossed it and it just hit perfectly, right above his head,” Sims said. “I had another one like that tonight. I wish it could have gone in. It was just barely over.”

Kewanee opened the second half with two quick goals in the first seven minutes by Cristian Cazares to go go up 3-1.

The Tigers battled back with a goal by Stopka and then a hard cross by Chase Sims, the sophomore brother of Matt, to tie things at 3-3 in the 20th minute.

Goals by each Sims brother was going to make for good conversation around the dinner table at home.

“Good or bad, we always talk about it (at home),” Matthew said. “It’s very cool playing with him. It really makes me happy. I’m going to miss playing with him.”

The Tigers had a good quantity of shots on goal if not quality, Gray said.

“The one thing we did well tonight was when we got forward we combined and got some chances on goal,” he said. “Not all of them were of the greatest quality, but we got a volume of chances on goal tonight through our passing and teamwork moving the ball forward. Which is something we haven’t seen a ton of, so that’s good to see.”

The only thing that would have made the night better for the Tigers (2-16-1) would have been if they could have pulled out their third win of the season.

“We haven’t seen a lot of on the field successes this year. I think the boys should feel good about it. They earned it. They worked hard,” Gray said. “Obviously, you’d like to be able edge it out. It seemed like when they scored, we scored, they scored, we scored all night. So being the one that scored second, the draw seems a little bit better for us.

“Our boys worked hard. It’s been a long season. These guys kept working and showing up. We keep seeing improvement, so we just hope we’re right where we need to be when we head in the playoffs in a couple weeks.”

• Tiger tales: The Tigers have a makeup game against DePue-Hall at home Friday at 3:45 p.m. They are scheduled to play at Riverdale on Oct. 7 in Class 1A Alleman Regional play.