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The Warriors celebrate following the 2-1 win over West Hall last week at Warrior Stadium. The win clinched the Region 7-AAA title and gives the Warriors the No. 1 seed heading into the Class AAA state tournament, which begins April 21.
For the first time in school history, the White County boy's soccer team will be putting some region championship hardware in the trophy case.
The Warriors clinched the 7-AAA title last week with a 2-1 win over West Hall, and then finished off their perfect run through the region schedule on Tuesday, knocking off North Hall 5-2.
The Warriors will be the No. 1 seed from Region 7-AAA when the playoffs open April 21.
“It's a great group of guys and we're led by some outstanding seniors,” WCHS assistant coach Clancy Loudermilk said. “We knew we were going to have a good team, but at the first of the year, we were just trying to get everybody to work together. We knew if we played together, this is what we could accomplish, and we did it. We played hard and got it done.”
The Warriors fell behind 1-0 in the first half, but Andrew Pierce tied things up before halftime and then scored another goal in the second half to rally the squad. The Warriors' defense, led by keeper Tristan Morris, managed to hold off a myriad of offensive attacks in the second half, with Morris coming up with a handful of key saves.
“We kept our head tonight,” Loudermilk said. “The first half of the Cherokee Bluff game we kind of lost it, lost our composure, we kind of crumbled a little bit. But this time, we kept it together. I told the boys at halftime, 'if you come out and bust it in the second half, we're going to win,' Tristan made some big, big saves tonight. One of the main reasons we won was Tristan. He kept us in the game.”
West Hall threatened 32 minutes into the first half, but Morris made a leaping save on a shot by Luis Olguin to keep the game scoreless. Olguin missed from close range on a header off a corner kick to keep the pressure on during the first 15 minutes of the match. With 25 minutes left in the half, West Hall's Alejandro Lemus came up with a steal on the Warriors' end of the field and scored a shot from the left side for a 1-0 lead.
While the Spartans were being active on the offensive end, they were also making sure not to let Hayden Gensler get things going for the Warriors, putting two, and sometimes three, defenders on the Warriors' leading scorer.
“We knew if they man-marked Hayden like Cherokee Bluff did in the first half, Andrew would have to step up and he came through big,” Loudermilk said. “We'll take Andrew 1-on-1 or 1-on-2 every day, he pulled us through. The game plan was to get him the ball. West Hall has a great midfield, so we had to get the ball up and skip the midfield. We had a bunch of chances in the first half, it could have been a one-sided game.”
Gensler and Pierce teamed up for the tying goal three minutes later. Gensler ran down a long pass and then got the ball to Pierce, who got off a shot that skipped off the keeper's hands and into the goal to make it 1-1. Pierce took the pass from Gensler outside the box on the right side, and popped up a lob shot that was just high enough that the keeper couldn't catch it, with ball bouncing and rolling into the net the back of the net.
“Obviously they knew he's our top striker, so I had to step in and do as much as I could,” Pierce said. “I had to help take us to the win.”
Pierce's goal seem to spark the Warriors' attack for the rest of the first half, leading to several scoring opportunities, but the Warriors were unable to take advantage of those chances and headed into the locker room in a 1-1 tie.
In the opening moments of the second half, Gensler made an incredible individual effort to almost break the tie.
Gensler came up with the ball surrounded by three or four defenders, and managed to make his way past the defensive pressure, firing a shot at the goal. The ball ricocheted off the crossbar, and Gensler ran down the loose ball, heading the ball toward the right side of the net, but a West Hall defender managed to keep the ball from crossing the line.
With 29:27 left on the clock, Pierce came up with a steal and ripped off a long shot from about 40 yards out on the right side. The keeper dove and got both hands on the shot, but the ball came off his hands and went into the back side of the net to give the Warriors a 2-1 lead.
“They watched the film and put two guys on me, but you can't do that since we have another great striker in Andrew,” Gensler said. “He scored both goals today. They double team me and he's wide open, and he scores two brilliant goals.
With 23 minutes to go, West Hall got an indirect kick from Olguin when a mad scramble off a corner kick left several players on the ground. The ball was placed near the penalty mark, about six yards from the goal. The Warriors lined up nearly the entire team in front of the goal, and managed to knock the ball away. Off a corner kick, Morris came up with the ball to end the scoring threat.
“He's a big guy, and we didn't know he was that quick,” Loudermilk said about Olguin. “They like to play the ball to his feet and he played really good.”
Morris came up big again with 22 minutes left, making a save off a close ranged shot, and then Cohen Cantrell forced a turnover to stall the Spartan's final comeback attack.
“The whole team put in work, practiced hard, and we kept our heads in the game, even when we were down by two at Cherokee Bluff,” Pierce said. “All of us love this game, we've worked hard and we just wanted it.”
Gensler said winning the region title is special for him and the the other seniors – Pierce, Maverick Aguilar, Charles Causey, Dominic Stevens, Ian Sanchez, Michael Wren, Trey Morris, and Joseph Kahle.
“This is a big achievement for everybody on this team,” Gensler said. “No soccer team has ever won region, so to do it my senior year with this great group of guys just feels amazing. I can't find the words to describe it.”
With the the region title on the resume, the Warriors are looking to make some noise in the state playoffs. Loudermilk said winning region title could potentially mean a good draw in the state bracket and set up a deep run in the playoffs.
“Honestly, we didn't want to finish second because we would have to play (No. 1) Westminster in the second round,” Loudermilk said. “Teams are going to have to score on us to beat us. So if we keep scoring, we keep doing what we've been doing, teams are going to have score five or six goals to beat us. I feel like we could make a run to the Elite 8 or the Final 4, and see what happens.”