MURFREESBORO — Greeneville senior keeper Tanner Myers wears a neon green uniform in goal, but he really should consider changing to blue with a red cape and red S on his chest.
The kid is just that super.
Following a 1-1 tie through regulation and two extra periods, Greeneville outlasted the Alcoa Tornadoes 8-7 on penalty kicks in the first round of the Class 2A state tournament on Tuesday with Myers turning back three PKs and then booting the match winner himself.
“This is what he thrives on,” Greeneville coach Jerry Graham said of Myers. “This was his moment and he came up big. To have three saves on penalty kicks was tremendous and then to have the winning kick? What a day for Tanner Myers. ... I’m happy for him for us to be able to get the outcome the way we did today.”
For sure, if anyone was going to save Greeneville, it was going to be Myers.
Alcoa outplayed Greeneville most of the match, getting off 30 shots while the Devils mustered 10.
But with the ball on his end most of the day, Myers stood strong with 15 saves overall.
“Greeneville’s keeper is phenomenal,” said Alcoa coach Andy Byrd. “... He commands the game. He made four or five – a collection – of really good highlight-reel saves today. Special player.”
Myers stopped Alcoa’s fourth, eighth and 10th PKs.
On the fourth, Myers laid flat out to his left and got a hand on the ball to knock it away.
On the eighth, Myers had his most spectacular stop when he dove to his left and got his right hand up just in time to knock away the ball above his body.
And on the 10th, Myers made it look almost routine as he dropped to his left and knocked the ball away with two hands.
“I just looked (Alcoa’s kicker) dead in the eyes, smiled at him and told him, ‘I really want to get out of here because I need to eat,’” Myers said of his final save. “I’m tired. I’m hot. And then he smiled back at me and looked straight where he was going. I knew where he was going. I felt it in my bones.
“It just comes down to instinct, really. I only have that instinct because of the amazing coaches I’ve been surrounded by. Coach Graham just instills a different level of mentality in our players. Coach (Michael) Connell instills a different level of passion. And coach (Rustin) Jones has trained me as a goalie to be the best goalie I could ever be. I’m eternally thankful for all three of them.”
Myers celebrated the stop like a WWE wrestler might celebrate a body slam. And then he stepped to the PK stripe himself to win it.
Myers charged the ball with six quick steps and punched it to the lower left of Alcoa keeper Jacob Baumann, who had no clue where the ball was headed as he dove the opposite way to his left.
The game-winner sent Myers racing in celebration toward the Greeneville bench where he came to a sliding stop and was dogpiled by teammates.
“I’ve been asking and begging all season to take a pen,” an exuberant Myers said. “It came up and I smashed that pen!”
Although Myers has practiced PKs, it was his first during a match.
“He’s been joking that he should be PK1,” Graham said with a smile. “After every practice, he’s like, ‘PK1? PK1?’ We told him I think last week that if 15 people get struck by lightning, we would let him go 16th. Obviously, we were just joking. He’s got a great pen and he was able to show that today.”
In quite the twist, Alcoa went with Baumann, a senior, in goal for PKs after freshman Kellen Whedbee had played in goal the entirety of regulation and the two extra periods, making two saves.
Baumann hadn’t been in goal all year, but Byrd said the decision had been made prior to the match to go with him if it came down to PKs. And Baumann – a defender by trade – responded well, stopping two PKs.
“In those situations, you pretty much go with your most spider monkey child on the team,” Byrd said. “Our starting goalkeeper is a freshman. Kellen has done great for us all year long, but on PKs, he’s still a freshman. It wasn’t a decision we made lightly, but at the same time, I talked to him a couple days ago and said, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do.’ And he was fine with it.”
David Fisher, Connor Stayton, Brody Inscore, Austin Beets, Simon Holt, Griffen Gricunas and Holden Dalton knocked home Greeneville’s first seven PKs.
“You’ve got to give credit to the other kickers, too,” Graham said. “People don’t have any idea the nerve it takes walking from midfield, stepping up to that PK stripe. Your heart’s beating out of your chest. For them to be as calm and collected as they were, hats off to them for hitting those shots.”
Said Myers, “It got to the point where I took the winning pen, but everyone stepped up there and I’m just so proud of them.”
Jude Dyer scored in the 11-minute mark of the first half for Greeneville before Alcoa’s Marcos German tied it 1-1 with a goal in the 32nd minute.
Greeneville’s PK win avenges a PK loss in similar fashion to Valor Prep in last year’s state tournament final.
“That pen loss in the state final last year hurt and it hurt bad,” Myers said. “I just knew we weren’t going to lose today.”
The Devils, now 13-9-1, move on to the state semifinals for the ninth straight season and will face Millington – a 3-2 winner over Chester County in the first round – at 4 p.m. central Wednesday.
Alcoa ends its season at 10-12-1.
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