BETHANY — Hilldale ended the season of the Bethany’s boys soccer team with a 1-0 win Tuesday (May 13) in the Class 4A Boys Soccer State Semifinals at Southern Nazarene Wes Harmon Field.

The Bronchos were in familiar territory, playing in a state semifinal game for the third straight season. They fell to the same Hilldale squad in 2023’s semifinal.

Bethany coach Sean Williams stressed to his team that it was the “effort and mentality” that could potentially get the Bronchos “over the hump.”

“We’ve played in three semifinals as a team and our players have often been afraid of the moment and played not to lose instead of playing to win the game,” Williams said via phone.

“You could see it in our eyes tonight that the mentality was there.”

The two teams played to a scoreless tie in the first half.

“We did a tremendous job defensively in and how we were organized and everybody understanding the game plan,” Williams said.

In the second half, the Hornets broke through with a goal 20-25 minutes into the period.

Senior Hayden Pickering drew a penalty and fellow senior Brody Haraway scored on a penalty kick, getting it past Bethany junior keeper Seth Greiner.

“He just put it out of reach, Williams said of Haraway’s shot to make it 1-0. “(The kick) was what we expected and and it was just outside of (Greiner’s) fingertips.”

The penalty happened across the field from the team’s bench.

“I wish it wouldn’t have come down to an official making a call, but again I couldn’t see it.” Williams said. “We didn’t argue with it. We played the next play and we kind of stress that you just overcome and play through the adversity.”

The Bronchos had opportunities to tie the game.

“Some teams might crawl into a hole and and I thought we didn’t skip a beat and we kept playing,” Williams said.

Junior Denton Jaggers had a header but Hilldale’s goalkeeper made an “unbelievable” save, Williams said, to keep the 1-0 lead.

The loss ended an era with several seniors graduating.

“I’ve known a lot of them since they were little.  I think a lot of them are like my own kid,” Williams said.

He said Hilldale coach Conner Schwab praised the Bronchos.

“He pointed out was just how hard he play and how he appreciated it. He’s like ‘it’s hard to match your effort.’ As a coach, that’s one of our things that we stress as part of our DNA,” Williams said.

Williams continued.

“I’ll always love this team. They will always hold a special place in my heart. Just the look in their eyes and how hard they played the mentality that they played with. They did everything I asked and I couldn’t be more more proud of them.” 

Photographs courtesy of Kristie Escoe of Life in Action Photography.

	1	2	FINAL
Hilldale (16-1)	0	1	1
Bethany (12-5)	0	0	0