Columbia Scores Three Unanswered To Win Second Straight Sectional Title

GRANITE CITY – The Father McGivney Griffins couldn’t have dreamt up a better start to Wednesday night’s Class 1A Murphysboro Sectional Final.

Just four minutes into the game senior Kai Gaither unleashed an unstoppable shot from about 25 yards out that weaved its way through traffic cleanly, ending up in the back of the net to go up 1-0 against the Columbia Eagles.

In the 13th minute, the Griffins doubled the lead when Mason Holmes whipped in a shot from distance that was pushed away by Columbia goalkeeper Brady Hemminghaus, straight into the path of Owen Weissert who cleaned it up at the back post to make it 2-0.

Then the Eagles did the unthinkable, answering with two second-half goals, pushing the game into overtime where they’d go on to a 3-2 win.

The Eagles (23-2-1) will host Williamsville (22-4) in the super-sectional on Saturday at 11 a.m.

Wednesday’s game was originally set to be hosted by Murphysboro but was moved to Granite City High School’s Gene Baker Field for better convenience.

One big inconvenience was the wind, depending on who you asked.

“The wind was huge,” Columbia head coach Jamey Bridges said. “It’s a mentality thing when you’re playing against the wind. I think it’s a factor, personally, and I think the stats show that too.”

The Griffins won the coin toss and chose to have the wind at their backs during the first half. It paid dividends.

But when it switched at half-time, Columbia answered right back.

The Eagles scored three minutes into the second half when Hayes Van Breusegen struck gold. The chance came from a corner kick that wasn’t cleared out properly and Van Breusegen was in the right place at the right time.

That same thing happened again in the 58th minute when he tied the game after another corner kick.

The game went into overtime tied up at 2-2. Columbia had already played a game that went to overtime against Marquette Catholic, which needed penalties to decide a winner, so the scenario wasn’t unusual for the Eagles.

They got the go-ahead goal with 24 seconds left in the first 10-minute overtime period thanks to another mad scramble in the six-yard box, this time from a long throw-in.

The ball came in and seemingly was controlled by McGivney keeper Patrick Gierer, but Columbia’s Micha James went up for a header, knocking it out of Gierer’s hands and into the net.

It proved to be the game-winner. All five goals were scored with the helping wind.

McGivney head coach Matt McVicar did not use the conditions as an excuse.

“It’s that time of year where it’s going to be windy all the time. Wind is not a factor that we’re not used to,” he said.

“It’s just the bouncing balls that we didn’t clear. All of their goals came outside the field of play. We talked about how we needed to defend those. We didn’t give them as many chances as the first time we played them, but we still didn’t defend it as well as we needed to,” McVicar said.

The Eagles beat McGivney 3-0 earlier this season on September 21. During that time, Columbia went on a nine-game shutout winning streak.

Before that streak started, Columbia had to come from behind to beat Marquette (Chesterfield, Mo.) 3-2.

“We’ve been here before,” Bridges said. “We’ve been down 2-0 before and came back to win 3-2. I told them to just keep doing what they’re doing, and we can do this thing.”

It was the first time this postseason that Columbia had trailed.

“I didn’t expect to be down,” Bridges said.

And he gave his team a simple message after the first 40 minutes.

“I just said at halftime, ‘We don’t go down like this, we go down fighting,’ and that’s what we did.”

History was on Columbia’s side on Wednesday as they had been the ones to end McGivney’s season for three straight years now. In 2022 it was in the sectional semifinals, in 2023 it was in the regional final, and now in 2024, it was in the sectional final.

McGivney’s season ends at 19-5-2, breaking the single-season win record and the program’s deepest postseason run.

“It’s always frustrating to have your season come to an end, but I’m not frustrated with our boys,” McVicar said. “It’s been a hell of a year for us. The records we set, and the way we continue to grow as a program. I’m just disappointed for our seniors.”

McGivney will graduate eight seniors after a historic season.

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