Despite jumping in front of the higher-seeded Franklin Monroe Jets, the Troy Christian boys’ soccer team suffered a tough loss in the sectionals finals last week, as the Eagles lost to the Jets 2-1 in double overtime in a game held at Sidney High School.

“The weather played a factor in our favor,” Troy Christian coach Ryan Zeman said. “We knew we had to shut down their key players, and we needed to get them in a quick counter attack.”

Both teams battled to a scoreless tie at the half, and Zeman knew the Eagles needed to strike quick in the second half.

“I was proud of the guys in the first half,” he said. “We held our own. We needed more intensity in the second half.”

Andrew Strait broke the tie ten minutes gone in the second half, as he had a breakaway goal to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.

Franklin Monroe tied the game with 16:02 left in the game when Britt Bowlin found the back of the net.

“Our defense played well and it carried us tonight,” Zeman said. “We shut down their top guy, and we knew he would be a problem back there.”

Seven minutes into the second overtime, the Jets scored and the Eagles would see their season end at 11-7-1 overall.

“I feel we played our best soccer the last four games of the season,” Zeman said. “We lost a close one to Franklin Monroe, tied Seven Hills and beat a good Catholic Central team on Saturday.”

“We started to play better late in the season. Our guys really believed we could win this game.”

Troy Christian loses four seniors; Dillon Belcher, Tom Null, Wes Alexander and Stefan Speck suiting up for the last time.

“We played this game for those guys. We knew they would give 100% effort and we fed off their drive.”

“We grew as a team this year, and a lot of freshman and sophomores made a lot of impact coming off of a 7-9 season last year. I am proud of how we played, we were ranked in the top ten in the area all year.”

* Troy Christian Girls Soccer- It was a rough ending to their season last week, as the Eagles fell short to Sidney Lehman 2-1 in the sectional finals, in a game played at Sidney High School.

Riley Spoltman scored the lone goal of the game for the Eagles, when she took a pass from Kenley Blake for a score.