Lovelace blanks Page on his mom’s night

SWOOPE – All Logan Lovelace was doing was what his mother asked him to do.

The shutout in her honor was just an added bonus.

Playing his first home game since his mother, Sally, succumbed to pancreatic cancer on April 7, Lovelace corralled five saves and watched his offense do the rest in an 8-0 win over Page County.

“She wouldn’t want me sitting at home crying over her,” said the 17-year-old junior. “Those were her exact words to me, and I’m going to live up to her wishes.”

With his father, Bruce, standing near the concession stand, watching his only child keep the Panthers out of the goal, Lovelace clapped his hands together and looked briefly toward the sky once the referee blew the double whistle to end the match.

He looked over quickly toward his father, and then ran into the huddle to join his team.

“She’s smiling down on him right now,” said Bruce Lovelace. “And probably hollering every time the ball comes near him.”

The ball didn’t come near Logan Lovelace too many times, with the only real threat against his shutout coming with 29 minutes left in the second half. But teammate Trevor Hedrick stepped in front of the ball with Lovelace caught out of position, knocking it out of bounds to end the threat.

The offense all but put the game away in the first 20 minutes of play with Jamie Benbow spotting the Bison a quick 1-0 lead less than three minutes in. Kegan Knott followed with three straight goals of his own before the first half even ended. Two more first-half goals made it 7-0.

“I’ve got a good team behind me,” Lovelace said.

He wasn’t just talking about on the pitch.

In a quick ceremony between the boys and girls games, his Buffalo Gap teammates and the girls squad presented the keeper with two autographed soccer balls and two gift cards – one for McDonald’s and another for Wal-Mart.

“They’re both my second homes,” he said with a laugh.

His father watched most of the first half standing near the home-side fence, his hands thrust into his denim jacket pockets as he shivered slightly from the winter-like conditions.

“His mother wanted this,” he said, never taking his eyes off the pitch. “She told him to keep playing and keep going to school.”

He let out a deep sigh as the wind blew just a little harder and forced him to bury his hands deeper into his pockets to stay warm.

“It’s been a little hard and rough on us,” said Bruce Lovelace. “But the memories are there and we’ll go on.”

Diagnosed in the middle of October, Sally Lovelace was given about a year to live, Bruce Lovelace said. He knew “it was going to happen. Just not this quickly.”

Logan Lovelace smiled and laughed with the team after the match, making a few jokes before he slowly walked toward the concession stand.

“I knew she was looking down on me,” he said. “And that’s about all I can say.

“She started suffering and she’s in a better place. I’m glad she’s not suffering anymore.”

NOTES: Both the boys and girls teams wore purple armbands during their matches. Purple is the official color of the fights against pancreatic cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, animal abuse, Crohn’s Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, domestic violence, Epilepsy, Fibromyalgia and Lupus. … Bruce and Sally Lovelace were married for 25 years and exchanged vows on Nov. 11. “Veteran’s Day,” Bruce said with a laugh. “We knew there were going to be a lot of wars.” He kept laughing.