By Allen LaMountain
In a key super-region matchup on Tuesday evening at Dave Rider Field, Elizabethton got a pair of goals from senior Raphael Teixeira, one from freshman Isaac Fife and held off a second half Chuckey-Doak rally for a 3-1 victory in boys soccer.
Photo by Danny Davis - Making a play on the ball, Elizabethton’s Austin Vanhoy reaches his right leg around Doak’s Joe McNabb.
“This was huge coming off our last two games,” Cyclones head coach Bill McClay said. “Those were not our best games, but we made a couple of changes, made some formation changes and moved some people around a little bit.”
Chuckey-Doak looked to jump out to a quick lead as the Black Knights fired three solid shots on EHS goalkeeper Luke Broyles in the opening moments of the match, but Broyles was up to the task — as was his backline defense.
In the 17th minute, the Cyclones turned the tide on a goal by Teixeira after a side throw-in by Devin Clark. The Knights backline defense did not clear the ball out, and Fife took possession just outside the scoring box.
Fife then tapped a pass to his right from where Teixeira fired a low shot past C-D keeper Marshall Nagy, beating him to his right and giving EHS a 1-nil lead.
Fife got himself in the scoring column with a goal in the 23rd minute with an assist from junior backliner Kurt Dauksch, as once again C-D had trouble clearing the ball out of its end when the Cyclones applied pressure.
Fife made a left footed hit on a ball up around his knees and with a solid follow through beat Nagy cleanly to give the Cyclones (4-2 region) a two goal advantage that they took into the break.
“Our passing was really good today and it led directly to that second goal,” McClay said. “What we are doing now still needs a little work, but the passes were good and we found the open guy and he made a great shot.”
In the second half, a lapse in the Cyclones backline resulted in a giveaway goal as Rowdy Jones took advantage of a failure to clear the ball out of the box and beat Broyles just inside the post.
Broyles appeared to get a hand on the shot, but the wet ball’s rebound eluded him just inside the pipes and the Knights were back in the match at 2-1 with more than 20 minutes of game time remaining.
“He needs to work on his positioning, but he’s only had a handful of games under his belt,” said McClay. “He should have been to the outside of the pipes and he was inside which is why the rebound went into the net.
“That wasn’t the reason for the goal though. We need to just get rid of the ball when it’s down there deep instead of trying to dribble out. That is something that has plagued us this year.”
After Jones’ tally, the Knights seemed lifted up a bit as they became the aggressors, nearly missing the equalizer when a pass inside the box from Franky Cedillo found the foot of Jones once again.
Jones’ hurried shot missed the frame wide left, however, as Cyclones defender Bobby Holt moved himself into position to challenge the shot.
Play became more physical as time became a factor and this brought down yellow cards for both EHS sophomore Darion Simerly and Jones as both went for a 50-50 ball and became tangled in the C-D end of the field.
In stoppage time, the Cyclones moved the ball into the C-D end on a throw-in from Tasa Mushayamunda into the box where Teixeira dribbled to his right and found the back of the Black Knights net for his 10th goal of the season.
Cyclone notes: The EHS alumni game will be played on Saturday at Dave Rider Field at 4 pm and senior night will be on Thursday, April 26.
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Chuckey-Doak 0 1 — 1
Elizabethton 2 1 — 3
First Half
EHS—Teixeira (assist – Fife), 17:00
EHS—Fife (assist – Dauksch), 23:00
Second Half
C-D—Jones (assist – Pelikan), 57:00
EHS—Teixeira (unassisted), 80:00
Shots on goal: C-D 8, EHS 5. Yellow cards: (EHS – Simerly, C-D – Jones).
