CLASS AAA SOCCER: Hardin Valley advances to semifinals, 3-2; Bearden Bulldogs fall 1-0 to defending-champ Brentwood (23-0)

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MURFREESBORO – Two teams from District 4-AAA made their appearances Tuesday afternoon in the state soccer quarterfinals at Siegel Soccer Complex.

Hardin Valley Academy survived and advanced.

Bearden did not.

The Bulldogs lost to Brentwood 1-0 in a rematch of last year’s Class AAA state championship, while Hardin Valley Academy defeated Collierville 3-2 for a berth in Wednesday’s state semifinals.

Here’s how the two matches unfolded:

 

BRUINS HOLD OFF DAWGS

When the Class AAA bracket was released Sunday, soccer fans gasped when Bearden got paired against Brentwood in the quarterfinal.

Bearden (18-1-3) is ranked No. 2 in the nation by MaxPreps and Brentwood (23-0) is ranked No. 3.

The United Soccer Coaches ranked Brentwood second in the country on Tuesday and Bearden 10th.

“I don’t know how that came about,” Bearden coach Ryan Radcliffe said of the quarterfinal matchup. “I don’t know if there’s something that can be fixed from that. You’re talking about we had to travel 3 hours to get here, leave at 7:30 (a.m.) from Knoxville, travel up here and play a team I thought we’d maybe see in the finals.

“I don’t know if it’s the luck of the draw or what it is. It’s a tough one to swallow.”

Brentwood defeated Bearden 4-1 in last year’s state championship game. It was the Bulldogs’ second consecutive loss in the finals.

This time, the Bruins got a goal by Cooper Bailey in the 20th minute, and that was all they needed.

Bearden had 18 shots – nine in each half – while Brentwood had seven shots, three in the first half and four in the second half.

Senior forward Lucas Nordin had the team-high four shots for Bearden.

Nordin entered the state tournament with 27 goals this season and 75 for his career, three short of the program record (78) held by 2016 graduate Gabe Alvarez.

“We just didn’t finish,” Nordin said. “That’s about it. We couldn’t finish our chances. We don’t win the game.”

Bearden goalkeeper Logan Nelson had three saves and Brentwood keeper Thomas Fields had six saves.

The Bulldogs had several scoring chances in the closing minutes.

Hayden Tate’s shot in the 73rd minute went wide of goal.

Harrison Schwall’s header in the 74th minute was off frame.

Tate’s shot in the 77th minute was blocked by Fields with his foot.

And Daniel Kinney’s header in the 78th minute was off frame.

“If you asked me at the beginning of the year,” Radcliffe said, “I thought we could see this as the state championship game. I think the play kind of resembled that. I saw it was a state finals atmosphere, and best of luck to them. There’s nothing we can do about it. It’s a tough pill to swallow.”

Brentwood will play Bartlett at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the semifinals.

Bartlett defeated LaVergne 2-0 in Tuesday’s quarterfinals.

Bearden made its fifth trip to state in six years.

“It’s a statement. We’re privileged to get that,” Radcliffe said. “To be in Murfreesboro is great. Obviously you want to stay. Traveling up here, leaving at 7 this morning and get on a bus and having about 30 minutes to use the bathroom at the hotel and play that game was tough on us.

“We have to budget, too. We’d have loved to come up (Monday), but budgeting that many rooms at this point in the season is hard on us, but I hope there’s something that changes in the future.”

POWERS SCORES GAME-WINNER

Senior team captain D.J. Powers scored in the 75th minute, lifting Hardin Valley Academy to 3-2 victory.

Powers tapped in a free kick by Brady Hammer for the game-winner.

“(Hammer) just put a perfect ball near the 6 (yard-goalie box),” Powers said. “I didn’t see the keeper coming out, so I just crashed it and hit it with my left foot and it went in.”

HVA (13-4-6) advances to Wednesday’s 4 p.m. semifinal against Station Camp (17-6-1), a 3-1 winner in Tuesday’s quarterfinals against Siegel (16-7-4).

“Now it’s just recovery, how quickly can you recover,” HVA coach Jessica Stephens Burkhart said. “Unfortunately we had a trial run of this last week where we had to play a region semifinal and a region final back-to-back and then have a day off and play the substate. We’re kind of back on that schedule again. We’ve got to get some recovery in and stay as healthy as we can.”

The Hawks had a 2-0 halftime lead against Collierville.

Ish Palacios scored in the 20th minute off a cross by Ben Brophy.

Nathan Holbrook gave the Hawks a 2-0 lead in the 28th minute with a header for the goal after Hammer’s corner kick.

“Two nothing is notoriously the most dangerous lead in soccer,” Burkhart said, “because it makes you feel comfortable, but any momentum swing like that can be very dangerous. What you saw is exactly what they worry about, is the momentum shifted and we were just flat footed and they took advantage of it.”

Collierville tied it 2-2 on goals by Luke Johnson and Ryan Anthony in the 50th and 52nd minutes.

“We just lost energy the first 15 (of the second half),” Powers said. “We thought we already won the game. We were talking about tomorrow’s game and we just lost our heads and they scored two right away. They’re a good team, so when we don’t play our game, that’s what happens. After the two goals, we just woke up and knew we had to play and finish the game out.”

Collierville had 19 shots to HVA’s 11 shots.

Adam Leonard had three saves for the Hawks.

“You’ve got Bearden here and us here, and we’re from the same district,” Burkhart said, “so to be in the final eight teams from the same district, that’s just a testament to how hard our schedules are. We’ve been through test after test after test, and what you saw today was the leadership of these boys and the fight they have to not give up.”