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BY DAVE LINK
MURFREESBORO – Grace Christian Academy’s first trip to the state soccer Final Four was a memorable one Wednesday afternoon.
Junior midfielder Micah Stevens scored in the fourth minute of overtime, lifting the Rams to a 1-0 victory over Boyd-Buchanan of Chattanooga in the Division II-A semifinals at Richard Siegel Soccer Complex.
Grace Christian Academy (16-1) will play Webb School of Bell Buckle (12-2-1) on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. CT for the state championship.
“We’re really excited,” Stevens said. “This is the first time our school’s ever gotten this far, so we’re very excited.”
Webb-Bell of Buckle defeated Lausanne 3-0 in Wednesday’s semifinals. Lausanne finished 16-2-1.
“They can score goals in chunks,” GCA coach Isaac Brooks said of Webb-Bell Buckle. “To be honest, I think at the beginning of the year, we saw what they were doing and they were probably watching us as well, and it will be a great game. We’ve got to come out and play our game and let the chips fall where they may.”
Like Webb-Bell Buckle, the Rams have also scored big this season while relying on their defense and starting goalkeeper Stephen Sampson.
“They’ve done their job all year long,” Brooks said of the defense. “They’re the guys, the unsung heroes, the guys that put in the hard work to win the headers, to make the tackles. If you look at the amount of shots that we’ve taken this year and the amount of shots that we’ve allowed, our defense has been phenomenal.”
Boyd-Buchanan goalie Nathan Randolph made seven saves against GCA.
The Rams finished with 22 shots, while the Bucs (13-5-1) had five shots.
At halftime, Grace had 15 shots (five on goal), and Boyd-Buchanan had five shots (two on goal).
“Shoutout to their goalkeeper,” Stevens said. “He’s a phenomenal goalkeeper. We just kept at it. We have a great team. We wouldn’t have this without every single player. It’s a team effort, and we just kept at it.”
Brooks told his players to keep plugging away at the end of regulation.
“That’s what we told them at halftime and the start of extra time: ‘It’s going to come, just keep taking those shots,’” Brooks said. “The wind was playing some funny tricks on the ball, and to be honest with you, that one that went in, the wind pushed it down a little bit. Sometimes God blesses us, and sometimes He makes life a little bit harder, but today, He definitely blessed us, so we’ll celebrate.”
Stevens scored the winning goal from about 25 years from almost directly in front of the net. Senior midfielder Pedro Ungarello got the assist.
“The ball rolled out to me,” Stevens said. “I just took a touch, settled it, and I took the shot like we practice in practice and put it in the back of the net.”
It gave the Rams a chance to win the state soccer championship and make more history for the program.
“It’s one of those things that if we’re focused on trying to glorify ourselves,” Brooks said, “it makes it a little anxiety producing, like, ‘Oh, we’ve got this chance, and we want to make ourselves look good,’ but that’s why our guys were able to stay relaxed, because they were trying to play for something bigger, and they know at the end of the day, God will be glorified regardless of the result, so I think they can come out and play intense but also relaxed.”