The Kings Knights boys’ soccer team tied on Thursday, October 4th, in their final home game of the season against a tough ECC leader: the undefeated Turpin Spartans. The Knights are now 6-5-3, and 3-1-2 in conference games. After turning their season around, the Knights have earned a good seed in the playoff tournament.

Going into the game, the Knights were on a hot streak, winning 5 of the last 6 matches and going 3-1-1 in conference games. The boys know they have tough matches coming up, such as the undefeated Spartans, who stood at the top of the ECC.

Lately the team feels more capable of turning their season around.

“We’re feeling very confident in our ability to win a lot more games, but we have a very tough schedule coming up and we’re going to have to be at our best to win out,” senior Jack Reagan told the Knight Times.

The Knights held their own in the first half, keeping the score at 0-0.

Junior striker Eric Middlekamp broke the tie with a huge goal to give the Knights the lead at the 51 minute mark. The Knights held onto the lead until Turpin equalized at the 64 minute mark. With the rest of the game going back and forth between the hard fighting teams, the game ended in a 1-1 draw, ending the Knights’ chances to win the ECC.

A tie disqualifies the Knights from winning the ECC. They still have a shot to prove themselves in the playoff tournament this week.

After beating Talawanda, the Knights put themselves in a reasonable spot in the tournament at the 16 seed, giving them the chance to play Oak Hills at home on October 15th at 7:00 p.m.

Junior Brian Reagan says they “feel good going into the tournament, with this hot streak [they’ve] been on recently.”