Mustangs gallop into district tournament
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
DODSONVILLE — In a span of just under 10 minutes, the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs boys soccer team went from trailing by one goal to being up by two for a 3-1 Division III SE District Sectional final win over rival Eastern Brown Wednesday at Lynchburg-Clay High School.
LC will face the Peebles Indians on Monday, Oct. 25 in the district semifinal at LCHS at 5 p.m. Peebles defeated the Fairfield Lions, 1-0 Wednesday at PHS.
The offense for the Mustangs was nonexistent in the first half, and in a span of 9:30 in the second half, that all changed for the 2010 Southern Hills League champs.
Down by a goal, which was scored in the early portion of the second half, LC went to work and played like they have the entire season.
It soon turned into the Michael Smith show, at least on offense, but not without help from his teammates. Smith finished with all three LC goals. Currently, Smith has 27 goals on the season.
"Michael just … I've been looking at his stats and as a freshman he had maybe two assists, then last year he started scoring some, but this year, you can see a jump in his play. Every year, his confidence and skill just get better."
With 22:35 left in regulation, Smith tied the game when he beat the keeper, who was diving, and tapped the ball into the back of the net for a 1-1 score. Smith's goal was assisted by Zach Pingleton.
The aforementioned EB goal was scored by Chase Lawson with 32:57 left in the second half.
The goal by Smith soon gave new life to the Mustangs, who in turn raised the level of intensity of the game, which was already at a high level.
Smith followed his first goal with a header goal with 13:46 remaining. Though there was no assist awarded, a kick by Tyler Davidson helped set up the header by Smith.
LC soon took a two-goal lead, with Smith getting the hat-trick 41 seconds after his second goal. Smith made it a 3-1 game when he scored off a rebound by Davidson.
But the entire sectional match was full of intensity as there were three yellow cards issued, along with a lot of tough play, as the officials continually warned players from each team to watch their play.
"This is just a tremendous rivalry," West said. "It's been like this for the 12 years I've been here, and it doesn't matter who is struggling, it's going to be a tight game."
Mustang keeper Colin Creek, along with defensive teammates senior Perry Branham and juniors Pingleton, Matt Greenawalt and Colt West were the barrier that kept the Warriors from cutting into the lead of the Mustangs.
"Our defense gave up one goal, but man, our defense from that point on was unbelievable," West said. "I don't know if we even gave them a quality shot after that."
West continued to talk about the defensive effort by his team.
"Our defense is just getting better and better every game. It's a different guy each night stepping up," he said.
SCORE BY HALF
EB 0 1 — 1
LC 0 3 — 3
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