When you’ve been doing something for 14 years, it might start to get old. But that’s not the case for the Greeneville Greene Devils soccer team, which won its 14th straight District 2-2A tournament championship with a 9-0 win over Grainger on Thursday at Burley Stadium in Greeneville.
“It doesn’t get old, but each one definitely has their own identity,” said Greeneville coach Jerry Graham. “We just strive to hit that district championship first, that’s one of the first goals we hit, and then we move on to another goal from there.”
After losing so many starters and seniors last season, the most difficult challenge for the Devils this season was building chemistry. Well, no one is doubting their chemistry now as they head into the region tournament to face Elizabethton on Tuesday at home.
“It’s been a work in progress this year,” Graham said. “We’ve played some real quality teams to try to expose us early on. We build up and watch video and try to break ourselves down. Really, hats off to the guys, they’re the ones who put this work in. They’re the ones who work every day. They want to put that work in each and every day. So it’s all on them.”
Brandon Rogers opened the scoring with a header off a corner kick from David Fisher at the 17 minute mark. Samuel Gourley scored just five minutes later, splitting several defenders and threading the needle for the Devils’ second goal.
Gourley was just getting started, however, scoring his second goal six minutes later on a heavy boot from roughly 25 yards out to make it 3-0.
Two minutes later, with 10 minutes left in the half, Fisher weaved his way through multiple defenders and shot the ball past the keeper. With five minutes left, Greeneville added another goal, with a cluster of cleats making contact, but Austin Beets was the last to touch it, putting the Devils ahead 5-0 entering the half.
Gourley opened the second half with the hat trick, scoring just three minutes in with a shot to the bottom right of the goal past the outstretched hands of the keeper.
Gourley wasn’t satisified with three goals, though. He scored his fourth seven minutes later to push the Devils ahead 7-0 with roughly 30 minutes left in the match.
“I felt like last game we played against Cherokee, he really stepped up big time,” Graham said of Gourley. “Not just in scoring, but also the way he distributed the ball. His energy on the field really picked us up. You could tell just by the way he was moving out there, it was kind of contagious.
“His teammates helped him out a lot, putting him in good positions. But – holy cow – that second shot that he hit, it might have been the best goal of the season so far. It was a beautiful goal.”
With a huge lead, Greeneville’s reserves entered the match, but they didn’t let up either.
Emerson Hensley scored after rocketing the ball to the top right corner to make it 8-0 with 24 minutes left.
With six minutes left, a shot by Aiden Inscore bounced off the bar right to Justin Banegas, who had nothing but open net in front of him, ending the match 9-0.
Keeper Tanner Myers kept the net clean with four saves.
With the stakes raised and matches getting harder moving forward, Graham said the Devils will need to move the ball faster if they want to keep their season alive.
“We’ve been focusing on one- and two-touch passes in practice and trying to force that so it happens out here,” he said. “Come Tuesday night (in the first round of regionals), we’ve just gotta move the ball faster. Change the speed and hopefully it’ll open up scoring opportunities.
“I remember tonight, we went from back of our defensive third to the top of their offensive third in about three seconds, just one or two touches. If you do that, good things happen, and we just have to do that on a more consistent basis.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0