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Maroon Devils freshman Abraham Pena (from left), senior Owen Craig and sophomore Evan Hall battle it out for the ball against members of the visiting Cherokee Braves at the home soccer game on Monday, Sept. 18.
Larry Griffin
lgriffin@thesmokymountaintimes.com
The Maroon Devils boys’ soccer team has won its first two games now this season as they defeated the Hayesville Yellow Jackets 2-0 on Wednesday, Sept. 13 and then bested the Cherokee Braves 3-0 on Monday, Sept. 18.
Monday’s game against the Braves saw the teams competing fiercely against one another, rival players shuffling and weaving around one another in pursuit of the ball.
There were several instances where several players converged near the goal, colliding with one another and sometimes falling over one another.
Finally, with under three minutes left in the first half of the game, junior Clayton Shuler delivered a hard kick and scored the first goal of the game for the Devils.
They came back for the second half, which again saw the teams fiercely competing, with both sides delivering sharp kicks that the goalies had to block. Sophomore Evan Hall, with around 25 minutes left, ran the ball almost all the way down the field.
Two more goals were scored with around 20 minutes left in the quarter, with Shuler nabbing one and the other coming courtesy of senior Owen Craig. Craig led in shots, making four overall, while junior Edwin Lezama made three shots and numerous other Devils got one or two each.
The game also saw several other players with steals, including junior Brendan Lanning with 13, junior Max Wilmot with seven and junior Maclane Whorton with six.
Mason Devine, also a junior, had the lone assist during the game. In the goalie box, Matt Evans got eight saves throughout the game.
Coach Kyndall Cochran was happy for the team’s two consecutive wins.
“The coaches were really pleased about how everyone played, and seen the team work through the whole game,” she wrote in an email. “After every goal was scored, the players were saying 0-0. Which means no matter what the score is, play like no one has scored yet. We see all of our players buying into the team work, which helped us click. Coming off our first win last Wednesday we finally tasted what a good win feels like. It helped us get the ball rolling. These boys are still battling and will be exciting to watch.”
The game against the Yellow Jackets last week was an away game and part of the Smoky Mountain Conference.
The game saw freshman Abraham Pena and senior Owen Craig scoring goals.
In addition, Craig as well as Clayton Shuler had assists during the game and many Devils got steals during the course of the game, with Brendan Lanning getting 12 and Oliver Reyes getting four of them.
Matt Evans in the goalie box got six saves over the course of the game.
The Devils had another away game against Highlands on Wednesday, Sept. 20 after press time. Their next game is an away game against Tri-County on Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 6 p.m.