Tonganoxie, KS — Thursday night was a long one. With the varsity game not getting started until close to 8 p.m., we knew it was going to be a late night, and the boys ended up giving us a little extra soccer with a game that went into double overtime. We came away with the win over Baldwin after Jaxon Albert scored the game-winner in the second overtime off a pass from Thaddeus Hileman. Jaxon also got us started early in the game. Mason Benedict found him for our first goal, and Jaxon put it away to give us a 1-0 lead. From there, it was a pretty back-and-forth game. Both teams had their stretches where they were able to control play, and neither side was able to really put the game away. Unfortunately, we were dealt a tough blow in the first half when Mason Sparks went down with an injury. That forced us to start moving guys around and asking players to fill some different roles. We had some young guys called upon to play in spots they weren’t necessarily used to, and we were trying to find a combination that could get us back into a rhythm. That’s never easy to do in the middle of a game, especially against a team that continues to put you under pressure. We held onto the 1-0 lead for most of the night, but Baldwin was able to find an equalizer late in the second half to make it 1-1 and send us into overtime. Once we got into overtime, we decided to make another change and switched into a different formation. It seemed to help us quite a bit. We started finding a better rhythm, looked more comfortable in our shape and were able to create some opportunities going forward. Eventually, that paid off. In the second overtime, Thaddeus played the ball to Jaxon, and Jaxon finished it for his second goal of the night and the game-winner. It wasn’t an easy night by any means. We dealt with a late start, an injury to an important player, guys having to move into unfamiliar positions and a Baldwin team that battled us all the way through two overtimes. But our guys kept working and adjusting. Young players stepped into bigger roles when we needed them, and we found a way to win. Sometimes during a season, you have to figure things out on the fly. Thursday night was definitely one of those nights, and I was proud of the way the boys continued to battle until we finally found the winner.