Cyclones fall to Greeneville in conference soccer clash
Published 12:15 am Wednesday, April 27, 2022
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Star Photo / Brandon Hyde
Clay Hopland makes a play for the ball Tuesday eveneing at home against Greeneville.
Star Photo / Brandon Hyde
Elizabethton's Sean Smithdeal almost gets a goal for the Cyclones.
Star Photo / Brandon Hyde
Jacob Williams goes for a steal against Greeneville Tuesday.
Star Photo / Brandon Hyde
Skylar Jenkins races a Greeneville player to ball Tuesday at home.
Star Photo / Brandon Hyde
Cyclone Issac Hurley sends one down the field for Elizabethton.
Star Photo / Brandon Hyde
Elizabethton's Dawson O'Quinn executes a perfect header against Greeneville Tuesday evening at home.
Star Photo / Brandon Hyde
Tylar Jenkins goes for the steal against Greeneville's David Fisher Tuesday evening for the Cyclones.
In a match for the Region 1-AA boys soccer conference lead Elizabethton fell into a first-half hole they couldn’t dig out of. The Cyclones (7-2-2, 2-1 district) fell behind Greeneville 5-nil by halftime and lost a 5-1 match at Citizens Bank Stadium on Tuesday evening.
Greeneville (8-4-2, 3-0 district) jumped on EHS in the first three minutes for a 2-nil advantage with sophomore Austin Beets scoring in the first minute off a feed from senior Cade Snelson and Drew Shelton getting another goal with an assist from Snelson in the third minute.
“We set up a bit differently than we normally would,” Cyclones head coach Bill McClay said. “They continued doing what they were doing the whole game. We just got better at defending it in the second half. We got behind the eight-ball in the first few minutes and you can’t do that. We responded better in the second half.”
In the 14th minute, it was Aiden Wakefield scoring for a 3-nil Greene Devil lead and things got a little chippy with Eli Williams and Greeneville’s Drew Hillyer each collecting a yellow card for rough play.
EHS junior Sean Smithdeal was shown a yellow card late in the first half as well.
Blake Rogers scored in the 30th minute and again just seconds before the horn sounded at the end of the half. The Devils had nine shots on goal in the first half to zero for EHS.
“They have a lot of good players but we fought back,” McClay said. “It took us some time to get used to how they play, how fast they are, their touches on the ball and they moved the ball well from side to side. They didn’t score in the second half but we have to put together a full 80 minutes.”
The Cyclones showed much more discipline defensively in the second half, allowing just three shots on goal in the second half and EHS broke the shutout in the 69th minute with Williams scoring off a rebound of his own shot to make it 5-1.
“We improved as the game went on and we have another tough match coming up against Jefferson County,” McClay said. “These are the types of games you want to be in.”
—
Greeneville 5-1
Greeneville….. 5 0 – 5
Elizabethton… 0 1 – 1
Scoring summary
First Half
G – Beets (assist Snelson) 1:00
G – Shelton (assist Snelson) 3:00
G – Wakefield (unassisted) 14:00
G – Rogers (unassisted) 30:00
G – Rogers (unassisted) 40:00
Second Half
E – E. Williams (unassisted) 69:00
