Seeley helps guide SJO soccer to win in postseason opener

Scoring goals in soccer isn’t easy.

The St. Joseph-Ogden High School soccer team knows the feeling well, having been held scoreless in 10 of the Spartans’ 24 regular-season matches.

So when senior Zac Seeley scored 22 seconds into this past Saturday’s posteason opener for the Spartans, well, it was a good omen.

Seeley scored both of SJO’s goals in the first half and the Spartans’ defense held up in front of freshman goalie Hunter Ketchum to help ninth-seeded SJO earn a 2-1 win at sixth-seeded Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond during a Class 1A St. Thomas More Regional quarterfinal match.

The Spartans (8-13-4) will now turn their attention to a tough regional semifinal match at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at top seed St. Thomas More. STM owns a 7-0 win against SJO from earlier this season on Sept. 17, but if SJO can continue its recent hot stretch — the Spartans are 5-2-2 in their last nine matches — and pull an upset of STM, SJO would play in a regional championship match for the first time since 2016.

SJO junior Logan Ingram and SJO senior Luke Cohen provided assists on both of Seeley’s goals, while Ketchum made seven saves in the postseason triumph.

The win at ALAH came only two days after the same two teams played to a 1-1 tie last Thursday in St. Joseph for the Spartans’ regular-season finale. Seeley scored SJO’s lone goal off an assist from Cohen, while Ketchum made three saves.

In the team’s final regular-season road match, SJO defeated Olympia 2-1 on Oct. 8. After trailing 1-0 at halftime, SJO responded in the second half, receiving goals from Cohen and Seeley, with Cohen supplying an assist and Ketchum making six saves.

If SJO is able to continue its season with a win against STM on Tuesday, the Spartans would face either No. 4 Uni High or No. 5 Judah Christian at 4 p.m. on Friday for the regional title at STM. Uni High and Judah Christian are set to square off at 4 p.m. on Wednesday in the other regional semifinal match, with SJO having played both of those teams already this season. SJO lost 7-1 to Uni High at home on Aug. 29 and suffered a 1-0 loss at Judah Christian on Sept. 30.