Friday, October 10, 2008
MORTONS GAP — During a season in which it took eight games for the Hopkins County Central boys’ soccer team to win a game, it could have been easy for the Storm to simply fold and mail in the rest of the season, but on Senior Night the team closed out a successful final stretch of the year.
Central (4-12-2) defeated Union County (4-9-1) on Thursday night by a score of 5-2 to post a 4-3-2 record in the team’s final nine games of the season.
“I’m proud of these guys,” co-coach David Starks said. “We started the season off pretty rough. We had a tough part of the first season and these guys really finished strong.”
The difference in the team’s success has been creating more opportunities to score. The Storm have scored just 25 times all year, but 16 have come in the final four games.
“We are finally getting shots on net and that’s the big difference and the guys said it themselves,” Starks said. “If we get up, we play better. If we get down, we always have this sense that we can’t come back, and I think that makes the difference.”
Central proved that theory incorrect Thursday, however, when Braves forward Trey Dorsett gave Union County a 1-0 lead within the game’s first two minutes.
The advantage was brief though as Carlos Diaz scored the first of his two goals less than a minute later.
“We didn’t want them to get any momentum going because we knew if we gave them any momentum, they would just – it would go downhill because that’s a problem for us,” senior defender Hunter Miller said. “ A team will score a goal on us and we’ll just put our heads down, but tonight we fought back every time they scored a goal.”
They scored the first goal of the game and we just fought back and took the lead and didn’t look back.”
Although it was Senior Night, the veteran soccer players should have thanked the team’s youngsters who scored the next two goals.
Sophomore Jack Dickerson cleaned up a rebound on a shot by Diaz from the right corner to put Central ahead 2-1 half-way to the break.
With 13:39 left in the half, Diaz crossed the ball to sophomore Tristen Youngblood, who nailed one home. The 3-1 lead would stick until halftime.
The Storm increased their lead ten minutes into the second half when Diaz notched another goal, this one from 35 yards out, going upper 90 on the left side after juking a defender.
One minute later, the Braves regained the goal, but junior Zach Sisk put the lead back at three at the 27:09 mark.
“Tristen Youngblood and Zach Sisk and Jack Dickerson are three players that we’re really looking forward to,” Starks said. “It’s good to see those guys getting up there and getting some goals and kind of get hungry for next year.”
Defensively, Central bounced back and played strong one game after allowing six goals to Trigg County.
Miller gave that credit to senior Wesley Ipock.
“It really starts with Wesley in the back,” Miller said. “He’s our leader. He tells us what to do and we just try and play as hard a we can.”
Starks agreed that Ipock has been quite a boost to the team’s defending abilities.
“Wesley Ipock has been the rock of our defense,” he said. “When we finally moved him back to sweeper, that was a huge change in our offense too. He’s able to get the ball.”
Although Ipock boasts four years of experience with Central, Starks also mentioned Miller, a first-year player, as one of the teams better defenders.
“He didn’t know anything about the game when he first came out this year and he’s came a long way and actually earned him a starting spot on defense,” Starks said.
Senior captain Ben Lutz, also a defender, described what made the defense excel.
“We tell every body to man up and every body played aggressive tonight and got us the win,” he said. “I liked the way we came away with a win, my last game.”
Miller also expressed his emotions, playing for the final time on the Storm’s field with his teammates.
“I love them like brothers,” he said. “We’re all really close and there’s no animosity between any body.”
Starks spoke for all the seniors when he said it’s nice to end the season with a victory.
“As far as the seniors, as a group, I’m proud of them and I’m glad that we finished the season strong and actually got a win on Senior Night,” he said.
In junior varsity action, Central defeated Union County 5-1 to end its season 7-5-2. Scoring goals for the Storm were Zayne Arnett, Shawn Crunk, Colton Duff, Tyler Duncan and Tanner Solise.
Central plays in the district tournament 7:30 p.m. against Henderson County at Madisonville-North Hopkins’ Donley Field. Henderson beat Central 6-0 on Aug. 21 in their only match-up of the season, but the Storm trailed just 1-0 at halftime.
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