The hopes of the Seymour boys’ soccer team to repeat as Hoosier Hills Conference champions took a setback Thursday night when New Albany went home with a 2-1 victory.

After a scoreless first half, the Owls took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Ethan Greene off an assist by Blaine Spivey with 24:46 left in the match.

“He took on a defender and he put a square ball for Ethan (Greene) to hit it left-footed,” Owls coach Matt Dennis said.

“It was a really good pass.”

The Bulldogs tied the score on a penalty kick by Schnaider Upchurch with 10:14 remaining, then scored the winning goal with 7:30 on the clock.

New Albany outshot Seymour 5-3 in the first half and 12-9 for the match.

“I think we played with better urgency in the second half,” Dennis said. “I don’t know that we played better. We played hurried. Our skill was a little bit lacking. Technically, we spilled the ball a few times. The ball popped up a couple times and we mishit our shots ant that kind of stuff.

“I thought the intensity was better than in the first half. In the first half we let them dictate play quite a bit. The fact that it was 0-0 at halftime was a little tough to take because we had some really good opportunities and we couldn’t put it in the back of the net.”

The game was physical with the Bulldogs being called for three yellow cards and the Owls for one.

“They came out to play physical, and the referees let the physical play happen and our players didn’t respond in kind,” Dennis said. “We sort of lost focus of soccer and started focusing on the physical play and that led to our breakdown technically and it results in a loss.”

The Owls (7-1-1, 1-1-1 HHC) will host Oldenburg Academy on Saturday.