Published: May 11, 2008 11:05 pm         

This one’s for you, Uncle

The West Virginia Rapids kept knocking on the door Sunday at the YMCA Youth Sports Complex.

Pounding, actually.

And with 2:40 left to play in overtime, they finally broke it down.

Forward Aaron Dunbar looped a shot over the goalkeeper to the right side of the net, giving the Rapids a 1-0 victory over the WVSC Rowdies in the 17-and-under championship game of the Darrell Moore Memorial Tournament.

“It was kind of a blur,” Dunbar said of the play, which concluded a match that looked destined to end with penalty kicks. “The ball had come off one of their players and I got a good bounce. I got a little lucky.”

The championship was the Rapids’ second in as many years at the tournament, which honors the memory of Dunbar and teammate Jonah Moore’s uncle.

“Darrell’s wife and son, my aunt and cousin, were here today,” Dunbar said. “That was pretty cool, having them here for me and Jonah.

“Darrell coached us along. He taught me how to throw it in and a lot more.

“I suppose you could say we got it done for Darrell.”

The Rapids had dominated the match from the 15-minute mark onward, but couldn’t quite get the ball into the back of the net.

Before Dunbar’s winner they had taken numerous shots, including eight on goal.

The Rowdies, on the other hand, managed just two shots on goal.

“It was pretty scary at times, but we played great,” Rapids coach Jason Logan said. “We were unlucky not to score in regulation time, but in overtime we kept pressing and it finally came.”

Jonah Moore had six shots stopped by the Rowdies’ keeper and another that hit the crossbar.

Like Dunbar, Moore played defender last season at Woodrow Wilson High School.

“Jonah worked hard today up front,” Logan said. “He won the balls he needed to win and he got his shots off, which is all you can ask for a player.”

The victory gave Rapids goalkeepers Eric Pettyjohn and Pierce Jarrell their third clean sheet of the tournament. On Saturday the Rapids blanked Greenbrier Valley 7-0 and Forest Hills (Ky.) 5-0.

In the championship game, center defensive midfielders Tanner Pfeiffer and Brandon Ayers, attacking midfielder Caleb Mullins and wings Reid Landis and Andrew Blair seldom let the Rowdies get the ball past the midfield stripe.

It was a different story in the early going, as Pettyjohn was forced to make a diving save in the second minute.

“We weren’t winning the middle and they were on our side of field a lot,” Logan said. “There was one guy who was really killing us.”

Logan began pulling his midfielders out, one-by-one, for a rest and a talk.

They got the message.

“I told them you can’t let one guy maintain the middle of the field, especially when they are three of you out there,” Logan said. “From that point on we stepped up and dominated the middle of the field.”

The Rapids will return to action next weekend at the West Virginia Soccer Association state championships, also at the YMCA Youth Sports Complex.

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