BOYS SOCCER: Air Academy comes up short in title game

Air Academy scored twice in just more than 5 minutes, but it wasn't enough to close a 3-0 gap in a 3-2 loss to visiting Hinkley in the championship game of the Kadet Kickoff Classic on Saturday afternoon.
Down 2-0 at halftime, the Pikes Peak No. 8 Kadets came back in the second to scare the Thunderbirds, who were making their first appearance in the boys soccer tournament.
"We just can't give up that kind of lead in the first 40 to 50 minutes and expect to win," Kadets coach Espen Hosoien said. "We put a lot of pressure on in the second half and kept the ball down at their end, but we can't be that inconsistent."
Senior Garrett Gardner  scored after a throw-in and a centering pass from Marshall Hiner with 21 minutes to play.
Britton Darnall narrowed the margin to one with a chip shot over Hinkley goalkeeper Marcos Madera's gloves into the top right corner.
"Their goalkeeper made about 20 saves there in the last 20 minutes alone, so we were keeping the pressure on but we just weren't able to get another one in," Hosoien said. "We definitely had them scrambling, but giving anybody a three-goal lead is never good. But this weekend overall we were able to put some things together and see what we're capable of."
Hinkley won both its previous games in the tournament in overtime, advancing to the final after a shootout with Lincoln.
"We were a little worried about playing so much in a short period of time, and especially the two games on Saturday," Hinkley coach Kevin Daly said. "But with Air Academy, that was definitely our best game of the tournament. We felt like we were dictating the tempo in the first half, but I think we definitely started to see a little bit of conditioning come into play in the second."
The Kadets, who have not won the tournament since 2004, dropped the championship match to Pine Creek last year in overtime. This year, amid early season struggles with consistency, Air Academy beat Montrose on Friday and Widefield 4-0 earlier Saturday to advance. Widefield lost 3-0 to Lincoln to finish fourth.