Indian Springs uses fast start to power Final Four win over Faith Academy
Published 8:26 am Thursday, May 8, 2025
Indian Springs scored three first-half goals in their return to the Final Four to down Faith Academy and set up a battle of the top two teams in Class 5A for the state championship. (Reporter Photos/Andrew Simonson)
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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor
HUNTSVILLE – After two years away from their longtime destination of the Final Four in Huntsville, Indian Springs wasn’t content to just make it back to the semifinals.
The No. 2 team in Class 5A wasted little time reintroducing itself to John Hunt Park as Alex Hage scored just 13 seconds into the match.
From there, Springs never trailed and saw out the 3-1 victory over the No. 8 Faith Academy Rams on Wednesday, May 7 that saw them control both ends of the pitch and set up a state championship match against No. 1 Guntersville.
“Credit to Faith. I thought they had a fantastic team,” Indian Springs coach Rik Tozzi said. “Well-coached and set up. They’ve got a couple of fantastic players. And it means more when you beat a good team, and we beat a very good team today.”
After the opening goal from Hage, the tempo largely settled down for the opening 20 minutes as neither team registered another shot until the 17th minute.
However, Hage helped his team change that in the 21st minute.
After making a run down the left wing, he played a ball in for Tom Freitas who finished it off in the box for the 2-0 lead.
Indian Springs dealt with a couple of Faith possessions before going right back to work on the attack. Springs tried to get a shot off inside the box, but it was deflected off the defender for a corner kick despite the coaching staff’s requests for a handball call and a penalty kick.
Avery Biga fired in the cross off the corner kick and he found Long Truong in a perfect position to capitalize. Truong sent the shot home to take the lead to 3-0.
The Rams started turning the tide in the final 15 minutes of the half, firing a shot left of the goal in the 28th minute before Indian Springs blocked shots in the 30th and 32nd minutes.
The Springs defense continued to hold strong throughout the first half and helped the team take a 3-0 lead into the halftime break.
However, just like Indian Springs scored early in the first half, Faith struck early in the second half as well.
In the 42nd minute, the Rams set up to take a free kick and used the set piece to find the back of the net, cutting the deficit to 3-1 in the process.
However, that proved to be not just the only goal from Faith but one of the last significant chances. Despite outshooting Springs 14-7, most of those shots were from outside the 18-yard box and didn’t threaten keeper Forrest Crawford or his defense. Crawford did finish with six saves off seven shots on target.
Hage had a couple of chances in the second half, namely in the 54th minute when a near-post shot missed the target and the 65th minute when a shot on the run just hit the wrong part of the foot and rolled harmlessly out.
Those chances continued to keep the momentum in Indian Springs’ favor down the stretch and led to more shots on goal including a 71st-minute effort from Joaquim Crawford-Mendoza, a one-time effort in the box that just missed.
In the end, Springs saw out the 3-1 victory on the back of its first-half offensive and all-around defensive efforts.
After the game, Tozzi complimented his players for sticking to their game plan of neutralizing the Rams’ most potent attackers. That helped them not allow any goals from open play and control the majority of the match.
“We had to sit in because they have the twin brothers who are phenomenal,” Tozzi said. “I’m sure they’re phenomenal kids, they’re fantastic players, and we couldn’t handle them one-on-one. So, the plan was to double them around the box and give that space up. And so, when you think about it, for all their shots, they only scored once, and that was a free kick, right? They didn’t break us down once in the run of play, and my keeper didn’t really have to make any fantastic saves in the run of play either. So that was by design to play that way.”
Now, Springs will take on their biggest test of the season when they face the No. 1 Guntersville Wildcats in the Class 5A boys soccer state championship game on Friday, May 9 at 2 p.m. at John Hunt Park.
The two teams have exchanged the No. 1 spot in the coaches’ poll multiple times throughout the season. Tozzi looks forward to crowning a definitive No. 1 on Friday, something he affirms is what the state title game is meant to do.
“They got a great coach, a lot of good kids,” Tozzi said of Guntersville. “I’ve seen them play once live. They’re a fantastic team. They’re strong one to 11. Guntersville and us have gone back and forth, one and two all year in the polls. And got to expect it’s going to be a great final, which is what you want up in Huntsville, right? It’s supposed to be tough.”
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