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BY DAVE LINK
MURFREESBORO – Halls gritted out a victory in its first-ever trip to the state soccer tournament Tuesday night.
Greeneville, meanwhile, coasted to a win in its 12th appearance at state.
Both teams advanced to Wednesday’s semifinals at Richard Siegel Soccer Complex.
Here’s how they advanced in Tuesday’s quarterfinals:
Jacob Eubanks of the Halls Red Devils. (Photo by Danny Parker)
EUBANKS LEADS RED DEVILS
Senior Jacob Eubanks had a goal and an assist, leading the Red Devils (19-3) to a 2-0 victory over Crockett County (16-6-1).
“It’s huge, man. I can’t tell you the feeling,” Eubanks said of the win. “The first state ever for Halls and the school’s been around for like 100 years. We come out here the first game we’ve ever played and win, it feels great, man. It’s unbelievable.”
Crockett County was making its second consecutive trip to state. It lost to Greeneville 5-0 in last year’s quarterfinals.
“It feels fantastic,” Halls coach Eldon English said. “We’ve never gotten this far. We know Crockett County was a tough team. They’ve been through this before. Coming in without that experience got us a little nervous in the first half, but we got it together and picked it up in the second.”
English has been coaching at Halls for 10 years, the last four as its head coach.
He’s watched Eubanks come into his own as a player.
Eubanks, who will play for Pellissippi State’s inaugural season next year with goalie teammate Justin King, leads the team in scoring with 34 goals.
“He’s phenomenal,” English said of Eubanks. “He’s been one of those players when he was first coming up, he really took a little bit to realize as long as you trust your teammates, they’ll put it in the back of the net. He’s done everything I could possibly ask. He now has 14 assists on the season, and it’s not just his scoring. He’s come along in a phenomenal way.”
Tuesday’s match was tied 0-0 at halftime.
Diego Sabino gave Halls a 1-0 lead in the 45th minute when he took a pass from Eubanks and knocked it past keeper Avery Hurst.
Eubanks scored in the 56th minute, taking a pass from Chase Burnett, dribbling past defenders and scoring past Hurst.
“I got a through ball,” Eubanks said, “and then I just opened my body up, hit a scissor, cut into the box and went near post. It was a huge momentum goal.”
Halls finished with 22 shots to Crockett County’s 12.
King had three saves for the Red Devils.
“This is a phenomenal group,” English said. “I did not expect to get to this point when I first started this season. Once I hit that first preseason game after Powell and I knew my defense was good, that’s when I started to feel like this might be the year we make it.”
Halls will face Valor College Prep of Nashville in Wednesday’s semifinals at 6:30 CT.
Valor Prep (15-4-3) beat East Hamilton 4-3 in penalty kicks in Tuesday’s quarterfinals after they played to a 2-2 draw.
“I’m excited but I know it’s going to be a challenge,” Eubanks said of the Valor Prep match.
The Greeneville Greene Devils soccer coach Jerry Graham. (Photo by Danny Parker)
SHELTON’S HAT TRICK LEADS GREENEVILLE
Senior Drew Shelton had a hat trick as Greeneville rolled to a 6-0 victory over Millington in their quarterfinal match.
The Greene Devils (19-1-4) had 34 shots, while Millington (13-3-2) had one shot.
Greeneville had eight corner kicks to Millington’s two.
Greeneville goalkeeper Tanner Myers had one save.
“Hats off to our back line and our keeper,” Greeneville coach Jerry Graham said. “They did a great job of not giving up shots.”
Shelton gave Greeneville a 1-0 lead when he scored on a free kick in the 10th minute.
Spencer Robinson made it 2-0 in the 12th minute, scoring off an assist by Josue Castillo.
Cooper Graham scored next off an assist by Brady Quillen in the 16th minute.
Castillo scored in the 34th minute for a 4-0 lead. Brody Inscore got the assist.
Shelton scored on a penalty kick in the 50th minute and scored an unassisted goal in the 55th minute.
“Anytime you can come out here in the state tournament and get a good lead and then rest a few legs and get that confidence it’s great,” Graham said. “That’s the big thing, getting confidence on this big field and being able to use the space. It took about eight minutes to get used to the surface. We’re used to playing on a little bit smaller field, but once they got it, they did well.”
Greenville will play Martin Luther King (14-3-6) in Wednesday’s semifinals at 6:30 CT.
MLK posted a 2-0 semifinal victory over Signal Mountain (17-3-1).
“We don’t know a ton about (MLK) just because they’re a West Tennessee team,” Graham said. “We’ll go back and do our homework and see what we can find.
“We’ve looked at some of their scores and videos, so we know they’re a quality team.”