MURFREESBORO — After Wednesday’s 6-0 win over Millington in the Class 2A state semifinals at the Richard Siegel Soccer Complex, the Greeneville boys soccer team is ready for anything. That includes the championship match they’ll play in on Friday against South-Doyle.
Here’s a list of things the Devils have had to overcome the past few matches.
They lost one of their toughest defenders in the Region 1-2A championship match when Brandon Rogers went down with a season-ending knee injury.
A thunderstorm caused a 2 1/2 hour delay in the Class 2A sectional. Once play resumed, the Devils finished a 1-0 over Austin-East to punch their ticket to state.
In the first round of state on Tuesday, Greeneville faced Alcoa in a match that not only went to two extra periods, but 10 penalty kicks. The Devils emerged the victors, outlasting the Tornadoes 8-7 in those PKs.
Then against Millington, another storm rolled in, determined to prevent the Devils from having a normal match.
The Devils, though, were firing on all cylinders on both sides of the ball all match, allowing them to cruise into another state tournament final.
And finally, the Devils now have a chance to avenge a PK loss in last year’s state championship match. Kickoff against South-Doyle is slated for 11 a.m. in the stadium at Siegel.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome,” Greeneville coach Jerry Graham said. “We get to go play for another state championship. We played a really good match today. I think we played one of our finest matches tonight. Chemistry-wise, we were playing for each other, covering for each other, moving off the ball.
“We were clicking on so many cylinders even before the (delay). We really hated to see the break come because you wonder if you’re going to be able to come out with the same tempo.”
The thunderstorm swept in halfway through the first half. By the time play was suspended, the Devils had already built a 2–0 lead.
Connor Stayton scored from 18 yards out after Simon Holt shot the ball his way at the nine-minute mark. A minute later, Holt got his own goal with an assist from Austin Beets to make it 2-0.
“It just felt great because last game was really close and I don’t think it should have been,” Stayton said on the Devils’ fast start that he helped kick start. “I didn’t play good and, as a team, we needed to come out here and get a dominant win. And it just feels great to be the one to get it started.”
“Whenever you’re in the big state games like this ... you know a goal like that, you can take a big sigh of relief and it lets your players play a little bit more loose,” Graham said of Stayton’s goal. “I think that’s the thing. It loosened us up quick.”
The match was suspended with 21:16 left in the half.
“Struggling through and getting through that adversity, this team is built for that,” Graham said. “It seems like we’ve dealt with that a lot this season, through injuries, season-ending injuries. It’s almost like at this point they just take whatever comes at them and they roll with it and adapt. They just persevere with whatever comes at them.”
“Our energy, just throughout this entire two weeks of madness,” Stayton said on how this team keeps performing at a high level despite the challenges. “We’ve just known that we have to come out here playing better than the other team if we want to stay out here. And we did. We do it every time. We come out here and bring the energy and it’s just amazing to be out there.”
The Devils sure brought the energy when play resumed nearly 3 1/2 hours later. Less than a minute back on the pitch, Holt scored his second goal with an assist from David Fisher for a 3-0 lead.
Beets added a goal at the 24th minute with an assist from Brody Inscore to make it 4-0 at halftime.
Less than a minute into the second half, Beets took the ball from a Millington defender and booted it past the keeper to make it 5-0.
Jude Dyer scored the final goal after a perfect pass from Beets at the 49th minute to make it 6-0.
“This is the time you want to be peaking,” Graham said. “We’re playing good soccer but that’s just a whole new level right there. All that non-verbal communication is just hitting right now and that’s just the thing we’ve gotta carry on Friday.”
The Devils’ defense played lights out. After having quite the stressful quarterfinal match against Alcoa, Greeneville keeper Tanner Myers had to stop just one shot.
“Tanner likes being in the spotlight, but I think he was happy to not have to be called to do so much tonight,” Graham said with a laugh. “Our back line, holy cow, they are playing amazing, lights-out soccer right now. They’ve just really stepped up big time for Brandon. Everybody is playing for Brandon.”
Despite losing a key piece of their defense, the Devils have held strong, rallying around their teammate and shutting out three of their last five opponents.
Meanwhile, the offense has outscored opponents 14-2 in those matches.
“Its just a dream to even be here,” Stayton said. “Hopefully it can go our way this year. We need to bring out the energy like we did tonight. If we play like our performance tonight, no one can stop us.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0