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BY DAVE LINK
MURFREESBORO — Hardin Valley Academy’s soccer team pulled off an amazing comeback Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of the Class AAA state soccer tournament.
The Hawks scored three goals in the last 23 minutes and beat defending state champion Bearden 3-2 at Richard Siegel Soccer Complex.
And there was some controversy about the winning goal – a penalty kick by senior forward Ben Brophy in the 67th minute.
Regardless, the Hawks (17-3-3) advance to Thursday’s state semifinals at 6:30 p.m. CT against Hendersonville (15-7-1).
“When we were down at halftime (by a 1-0 score),” HVA coach Ray Dover said, “I was as fired up as I could be in a halftime speech and just said, ‘Listen, how bad do you want to win this thing? We have been down three times this season by a goal and come back and won it.’
“This team has the perseverance to come back and do it. It’s a big win, and the key thing now is making sure you don’t get too wrapped up in it because you’ve got to turn around and play tomorrow and it’s a state semifinal.”
Hendersonville (15-7-1) posted a 1-0 victory over Franklin (16-1-2) in their quarterfinal match.
Bearden (18-3-1) defeated HVA twice this season – once in the regular season and again in the District 4-AAA championship – but the Hawks beat the Bulldogs in the Region 2-AAA championship and again Wednesday night.
Their quarterfinal match was scheduled for Tuesday night, but thunderstorms delayed it until Wednesday.
“I’m proud of these boys,” Bearden coach Ryan Radcliffe said. “We left it out there. It’s frustrating because I thought we had a group that could make a good run at it and we just took our foot off the gas at the wrong time and gave up some sloppy goals.
“I thought we were finding our rhythm again and finding ways to get back into it, and just some things didn’t bounce our way, I think is the most fair way to say that.”
Bearden controlled play for much of the first 60 minutes.
At halftime, the Bulldogs had nine shots (four on goal) and HVA had one shot (not on goal).
Senior Preston Ford gave Bearden a 1-0 lead with 5.6 seconds left in the half, scoring on a header past HVA goalkeeper Adam Leonard, a Belmont signee. Laurent Igiraneza got the assist.
Bearden made it 2-0 in the 54th minute when senior Lucas Ford – Preston’s twin brother – scored on a breakaway off an assist by Tim Styles.
HVA cut the deficit to 2-1 in the 57th minute on a goal by senior defender Josh Colomac.
Ali Tarchane knocked a corner kick into the Bearden goalie box, and Brophy or Nathan Holbrook headed the ball toward the ground to Colomac, who tipped the ball past Bearden goalkeeper Logan Nelson.
“It was just an easy tap in,” said Colomac, a senior defender. “It was just an easy tap in. I couldn’t miss it to be honest with you. I miss a lot of those, but Brophy gave me a hard time and said, ‘I’m glad you scored. I would have been mad at you.’ It was really good teamwork.”
Colomac’s goal got the Hawks juiced.
Junior midfielder Dane Hammer tied it 2-2 in the 59th minute, scoring from about 15 yards off an assist by Holbrook.
“We started slow, and it’s not what we wanted to do,” Colomac said. “But you can always trust these boys to just give you a little bit of extra energy. Like coach always says, ‘Go an extra two or three yards for your teammates,’ and that’s just what we had to do. We had to buckle down and win.”
HVA got a penalty kick when senior Frankie Manrod was fouled inside the 18-yard box.
Brophy, a Maryville College commit who’s second on HVA’s career goals list (76), booted the penalty kick low and to his right past Nelson, who made a diving attempt to the correct side but couldn’t make the stop.
“There wasn’t anything about the effort from the goalkeeper on that that was wrong,” Dover said. “That’s an impossible penalty kick to stop because it’s low and to the corner. If that had been anywhere up in the air, (Nelson) would have put a hand on it and probably saved it. Ben’s got a great goal-scoring attitude and that’s what it takes.”
Brophy’s PK goal was a gut punch to Bearden.
“You’ve got to protect a 2-0 lead when you have a 2-0 lead,” Radcliffe said. “I need to take a hard look at the third goal, I’ll be honest. I think that’s about all I can say on that.”
Dover didn’t get a good look at the play when the penalty was called.
“I didn’t see it,” he said. “I thought there was a challenge in there. The call could have gone either way. The referee made a judgement call.
“I go back to this: If my team gets on the other end of a bad call, what I’ll tell them is we had 80 minutes to try and do something else, so I try not to focus too much on the officials and focus on what we’re going to do to work.”
Leonard made a couple of crucial saves in the remaining time, securing the victory.
Bearden finished with 20 shots and HVA had 13 shots, according to TSSAA statistics. Leonard had eight saves and Nelson three saves.
HVA had two players leave the match with injuries.
Senior defensive midfielder Gavin Standefer hurt his knee and sophomore defender Aaron Garcia broke his nose during the game. Both are questionable for Thursday, although Garcia could play with a face shield.
“We had to pull guys around,” Dover said, “and that’s the thing that impressed me the most about this effort. We had guys stepping up out there who don’t get a lot of playing time.”
Dover was focused on preparation for Thursday after beating Bearden.
“It’s about recovery,” Dover said. “We’ll get back and put the guys in the hot tub and make sure they’re stretched and hydrate, hydrate. It’s key. This really at this point is about the recovery game.”
Colomac said the Hawks will be ready for Hendersonville.
“We recover well,” Colomac said. “We hang out with each other. Team chemistry, the boys really help us stay locked in and stay in that mindset. We keep going. I love this team and it’s a great program. I couldn’t be more blessed.”
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