SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Girls Varsity Soccer Why do High School rules not allow games to end in a tie.

I watched the Riverside v Hillcrest game last evening. Both sides were short of key players. In the first half, with a strong blustery wind blowing directly down the pitch from behind them, Riverside scored with a wonderful goal from 30 yards or so. With about 13 minutes to go Hillcrest responded with a goal from a corner kick. Riverside had the edge on possession; Hillcrest probably had the edge on goal attempts. Overtime and then penalty kicks and Riverside won 6-5.

A tie would have been a wonderful result for Coach Laney Younts' much improved Hillcrest team. An unranked team tieing the number one ranked team is quite an achievement. So why is it necessary to go through the ritual of taking penalty kicks in a competition where no one is eliminated.

I've long been a proponent of ending matches in a tie. It's a natural result in soccer.

Riverside goes ten deep Hillcrest goes 3 deep what key players were missing . Great showing from Hillcrest,Riverside with all there talent squeaks by Mann and now Hillcrest what's the problem.

I had the pleasure of spending about 20 minutes last night with Mr. Joseph Keenan, Principal of Lancaster HS, prior to officiating my matches. Mr. Keenan was working the gate and had seen me officiate Lancaster's Tuesday evening match. Mr. Keenan is the Vice-President of the SCHSL and next year he ascends to the top spot.

At the top of my list of "what I would do if I was the czar of South Carolina high school soccer", was the elimination of OT and PK's in regular season matches. Mr. Keenan agreed with my logic (it's a natural result, it rewards the "underdog" who struggles to get a result, it gets the kids home earlier on a school night) and sees no reason why this shouldn't be implemented.

Mr. Keenan encouraged me to schedule a lunch appointment with Skip Lax and Jerome Singleton in Columbia. We will see what happens?

Will OT and PK's be eliminated?
Will the SCHSL pick up the check?

By the way, I found Mr. Keenan to be extremely curteous, professional and soccer-friendly. I believe we might have a "convert" down in the Columbia offices.

It is stupid not to have ties in HS soccer. It's part of the game at every level. Just because some DA bumpkin AD can't figure out a win is worth three points and a draw is one is not an excuse not to have ties in soccer.

I might add that we should use aggregate and goals for/goals against as a tie breaker as well in region play. I know that you have to cap the goals scored, but why not at 3 or 5?

If you start counting goals, doesn't always give an accurate depiction of a team's quality when it comes to playoff time. High School season is a pretty long stretch with a lot of room for things to happen in between.

Just an example: Team A has a significant number of multi-sport players, and several of their best are still in basketball playoffs when soccer season starts. Team B has all of their major players at the beginning of the season.

In the first or second week of the season, Team B beats Team A (minus their multi-sport athletes) 4-0. A month later in their second meeting, Team A (with all its players now and time to train) beats Team B 3-1. Team B is still ahead on goal differential, even with a 3-goal cap, but does that show they are the better team come playoffs?

If it aint broke dont fix it.

It's broke. It's been broke for a long time.