FAIRBORN | In hindsight, Carroll's regular-season loss to Alter — the only team to beat the Patriots in boys soccer — wasn't exactly a bad thing to happen before the start of the postseason.

"Being undefeated we were a little scared to get that first loss," said Carroll senior Jeff Popella.

Saturday in the Division II district final the Patriots couldn't afford a second defeat to the Knights. They didn't. Carroll avenged that earlier defeat with an impressive 6-1 win at Fairborn High School in front of about 800 spectators.

Carroll plays Cincinnati Finneytown in the regional semifinals 7 p.m. Tuesday at West Carrollton High School.

"It was motivation," Carroll coach Scott Molfenter said of Alter's 3-2 win on Oct. 13. "If (the players) couldn't get fired up for this game I was going to check their pulse."

The Patriots (18-1) were alive and definitely kicking.

Ben Christoff tapped in the first goal of Phil Penrod's assist with 12:05 before the half and Tyler Berry's header off Christoff's free kick two minutes later made it 2-0.

Alter's Nick Royer pulled the Knights to 2-1 with 9:10 remaining, but Carroll took a 3-1 lead into halftime on Kofi Sarkodi's score and added three more goals in the second half by Andrew Karmele and Berry (twice).v

Unofficially, Carroll outshot Alter 14-7 and allowed just two Alter shots in the second half.

"We told them to go ahead and win it all so we can say we were the only team to beat them," Alter coach Bob Ellis said, adding it was his worst defeat in 22 seasons. "It hurts anytime you get this far and lose. Today they were the better team by far."

The six goals was the most scored on Alter (12-5-2) this season (surpassing the four by Elder) and marked the second straight season the Knights lost to the Patriots in the district final (3-1).

"We've been looking forward to this one for awhile," said Berry. "We wanted to make sure we got a second chance."

Berry made good on three of his. He scored Carroll's final two goals off Jason Heider's throw in with 29:04 left in the game and headed in Popella's pass to him with 12:02 to go, sending many of the Alter fans for the exit.

Popella also assisted Karmele's score.

He dribbled down the sideline and was in the clear after an Alter defender fell. With a 3-on-1, he passed off to an open Karmele when the keeper challenged him.

Carroll's possession game benefitted from Fairborn's spacious soccer field and perhaps helped wear down an Alter team missing stopper Kevin Armstrong (injury) and not having a totally healthy Steven McCarthy at forward (recovering from mono).

"We gave them the best we could give them today," said Ellis, stressing Armstrong and McCarthy shouldn't be seen as excuses for the loss. "We just didn't have anything left"

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