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Maroon Devil Matthew Gray shooting just past the goalie for a Devil’s score in the win over Asheville Trailblazers.
Hannah Styles
hstyles@thesmokymountaintimes.com
Last Thursday, Swain County High varsity boys soccer team hosted the Asheville Trailblazers. In the first five minutes of the game, the Trailblazers received a penalty kick, from a handball in the box by Swain.
Goalkeeper Cameron Phillips blocked the shot but the Trailblazers followed the shot with a goal. Fifteen seconds later, junior Landon Matz found junior Matthew Gray with a through pass for a goal tying the game 1-1. A few minutes later, the Trailblazers added another goal from a corner kick bringing the score to 2-1. With 17 minutes left in the first half, Matz stole the ball from a Trailblazer defender to score a goal.
Before the end of the first half, Matthew Gray passed to Matz for another goal. Just 30 seconds later Matz would find Gray for another goal, and one minute later Matz scored an unassisted goal, getting a hat trick, to end the first half with the Devil’s leading 5-2.
A few minutes into the second half sophomore Owen Craig would get the ball to Gray for a score giving Gray a hat trick for the night. With 22 minutes left in the game, senior Adam Cotterman scored his first goal of the season off of a pass from freshman Clayton Shuler. Owen Craig finished off the scoring for the night with a long throw in from Gray. Overall, the team dominated the night, with an impressive win, even missing several lead players in the game.
“We played a good game overall. It was a rough start in the beginning, but the team rebounded well,” said Head Coach Scott Cline. “We had to adjust our alignment due to missing five players. We had to move some of our midfielders to our defensive back line. Both Canon Helpman and Gavin Lanning stepped up really well filling in as our center backs.”
On defense, Helpman led the way with 14 clears/steals, followed by Matz with 9, Lanning with 5 and senior Taligwo Walker with 4. In goal, Phillips finished with 11 saves.
The Player of the Game was Gray.
“Matthew really stepped it up in this game,” said Cline. “This was probably the best game I’ve seen him play all season. He was definitely one of our impact players in the game.”