NEW ALBANY — Trinity Lutheran’s boys soccer team scored three goals in a seven-minute span in the second half to defeat Rock Creek Academy 6-3 in the opening round of Christian Academy Sectional 47 Tuesday night.

Cougars Coach Joe Doggett said this was one of the best matches his team had played in a long time.

“We had much better touches,” he said. “We got down early. We were kind of sluggish at first and we came back with tremendous acceleration, our passing was phenomenal.

“We had so many shots on goal, and 13 corner kicks, and I thought we played super well.”

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Zephyr Wilson had an excellent chance to put the Cougars on the board at 28:10 of the first half but his shot sailed wide right.

Sawyer Doggett then had two corner kick opportunities but neither shot went in the goal to keep the match scoreless until Rock Creek’s Aidan Jackson scored at 26:17 for a 1-0 lead.

The Cougars continued to put pressure on the Rock Creek goalie, but either Mason Masters made a stop or the shots were high or wide and Trinity remained scoreless.

Ricky Castro scored off a penalty kick with 14:09 on the clock to tie the match and the score stayed 1-1 the remainder of the half.

Trinity attempted 13 shots to 6 for Rock Creek in the first half.

Jackson’s second goal put the Lions on top 2-1 with 37:57 left in the match.

The Lions were called for another hand ball and Trent Shoemaker put a penalty kick in for a 2-2 tie with 32:23 remaining.

Doggett had a corner shot at 29:53 and Shoemaker was in front to the goal and put the ball in the net and Trinity was in front to stay.

A.J. Goecker followed with a goal, off an assist by Wilson, to put the Cougars on top 4-2 with 26:04 remaining.

 “Usually what happens in soccer is people start getting worn out late in a game and all of a sudden you’re up by two or three and some of them stop trying as hard," coach Doggett said. "That’s just the way the game is.”

Both teams missed scoring opportunities over the next 21 minutes before Kevin Meyer scored for Rock Creek to close the gap to 4-3 with 5:20 remaining.

The Cougars finished strong as Doggett attempted another corner with 2:10 remaining, and the ball hit off the Rock Creek goalie and went in, and Castro scored an unassisted goal with 1:27 remaining to close the scoring.

“We played more as a team tonight than we had played in a long time," coach Doggett said.  "The kids were getting used to each other. We added one player (Wilson) we haven’t had all year. He’s our stopper, he’s in front of Sawyer in the back and helped our defense. Our defense was very good. I was real pleased with that.

“What’s nice about it is we didn’t give up. We were really in the position to make a lot of goals. We missed so many opportunities in the first half.”

The Cougars had 27 shots for the match, and the Lions had 10. Trinity goalie Brayden Stockelman had seven saves.

The Cougars (4-11) will play the winner of Austin and Henryville in the second (7 p.m.) match tonight after Providence and Christian Academy play at 5.