Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

THREE RIVERS — Christian Selent is a name the Buchanan varsity boys’ soccer team won’t soon forget.

Selent, a four-year varsity starter at forward for Three Rivers, manufactured all the offense for the hometown Wildcats in a 5-2 Division 3 district semifinal win over the Bucks Monday at Armstrong Field.

Buchanan finishes the season with an 8-6-3 record with a team of just 14 players, including four seniors. The squad featured five sophomores and two freshmen.

Three Rivers, now 6-11, advances to face No. 3-ranked Hartford (20-0-1) in Wednesday’s championship match at 6 p.m.

“It was just a great environment here tonight. Playoff soccer under the lights. It was a good experience for our kids with us having less depth than them (Three Rivers) and I knew it was just matter of time before they wore us down,” said Buchanan Coach Russ Philip. “I thought we matched up well with them. Shutting down No. 13 (Selent) up top was very difficult and we knew it would be going into the match. I’m proud of how my guys battled though.”

Buchanan scored first when Britian Philip. son of the Bucks’ coach, scored off an assist from junior Mason Frontczak at the 37:37 mark in the opening half.

Behind the solid play of its defense, Buchanan maintained a 1-0 advantage until the last six minutes of the half.

Selent, who scored all five goals in the match for Three Rivers. tied the match at 1-1 with 6:04 left in the half.

Philip received the ball from senior Brett Clark out front and blasted a shot past Three Rivers’ sophomore goalie Jake Haydon to put the Bucks back in front, 2-1, with 5:18 left in the half.

“Britain played a great match for us tonight. It was a great honor and memorable thing to be able to coach my son in his career,” Russ Philip said.

Buchanan’s momentum was short-lived, however, as Selent added another goal off an indirect kick with 2:56 left before the break and a 2-2 deadlock.

“At halftime, we talked about getting more lateral offensive runs when Mason, our goalie, had the ball on his feet because he can really send it from a distance. Our first touch with the ball sets us up for quality touches for our outside mids. We can’t rely on just one or two attackers, we have to have more people moving forward down the field,” said Buchanan’s head coach.

Selent found the net three more times in the second half, including a pair of goals scored off penalty kicks at 17:30 and 7:58. His other goal was scored at 26:28 off an indirect kick.

The second half turned into a real physical battle that saw the officiating crew handing out multiple yellow cards to players from both teams.

Three Rivers outshot Buchanan 30-10 in the match.

Frontczak had a busy night in the goal keeper’s role for Buchanan with 25 saves.

“Mason has done a nice job and kept us in so many matches this fall. He’s also the kicker for the football team. In my opinion, he’s the best goal keeper in this district. He is pure heart and works his butt off and is a great teammate. The other kids really look up to him,” Buchanan’s coach said.

Haydon registered a total of nine saves for Three Rivers.

Buchanan’s head coach reflected on the high points of the season afterwards for the Bucks.

“As a coach, I really enjoyed all the kids that played soccer for us that were dual-sport athletes,” Russ Philip said. “We had football and cross country kids who played soccer for us. We get a lot of support from their teammates in those other sports, especially at our home games. In turn, we support the other sports. We are a small school so we have to share athletes. That was a fun thing to see.”

Buchanan had a total of six dual-sport athletes on its soccer roster this fall.

Although Buchanan fielded just a varsity team this season, the Bucks’ head coach is encouraged by bigger classes headed through the program in the near future.

“For the first time this fall we had two middle school teams with 30 kids on both rosters. We are graduating some seniors, but our numbers are improving,” Buchanan’s head coach said.

Buchanan finished second to Brandywine this fall in the Lakeland Athletic Conference.

Three Rivers Coach Brad Selent, a former place kicker in football at the Division I level for Western Michigan University, is pleased to see his Wildcats reach the district finals in his first year at the helm of the program.

“It’s no secret that Christian is able to capitalize on his opportunities up front. In the first half their goal keeper sent a couple long bombs through that helped them get a couple goals. Our kids weren’t ready for those, but we responded well in the second half. Our organization was a big key, along with our discipline. I thought our kids handled the field conditions better and we were able to possess the ball more and made better decisions than they did in the final half,” Brad Selent said.