BY DAVE LINK
Senior goalkeeper Ben Ingleston and the Maryville boys’ soccer team pulled out a dramatic victory Tuesday night, beating host Hardin Valley Academy 4-2 in penalty kicks.
The game was tied 2-2 at the end of 80 minutes of regulation play and two 10-minute overtimes.
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Maryville’s PK shootout win lifted the Rebels into a three-way tie for second place with HVA and Lenoir City in the District 4-AAA standings, all with 4-2 records.
Despite the Rebels’ victory – yes, a draw counts as a victory in district standings, but not in overall standings – HVA finishes second in the district behind Bearden because of the tiebreaker, which is goals differential between teams.
Bearden is 6-0 in the district.
“We’ve had three PK finishes this year and this is the first we’ve won,” Maryville coach Nick Bradford said. “It comes at a really good time for us.”
Bradford said his team finishes third in the district and Lenoir City is fourth because of the goals differential separating HVA, Maryville, and Lenoir City.
Seedings are crucial in the District 4-AAA tournament with teams trying to avoid an elimination semifinal matchup with Bearden, state runner-up the past two seasons.
HVA (6-1-6) rallied from a 2-0 deficit in Tuesday’s match, scoring in the 62nd and 63rd minutes.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the fight that my kids showed coming back from that,” HVA coach Jessie Stephens said, “and then the way we came out in those overtimes, I thought that we took it to them.”
Maryville (6-4-3) took a 1-0 lead in the 22nd minute on a goal by Seth Meade, who was on a breakaway.
Meade’s shot was blocked by sophomore keeper Adam Leonard; the ball bounced back and hit Meade and then bounced into the goal.
The Rebels made it 2-0 in the 48th minute when Thomas Tisdale scored off a cross by Meade.
“We got that second goal as fantastic insurance,” Bradford said, “but then, of course, as any good team would do, they’re not going to quit. We knew that.”
HVA cut the deficit to 2-1 when D.J. Powers scored off Brady Hammer’s corner kick.
Less than a minute later, the Hawks scored again off a Hammer corner kick, this time with Frankie Manrod heading the ball in goal.
“We go down 2-0 and it looks like we’re dead in the water,” Stephens said. “We just found another gear. We were knocking on the door so many times, and it just takes a little bit of luck. We got a corner kick in and there we go, and then come back and get another one, and it’s game on.”
Ingleston and the Rebels took an early lead in the PK shootout.
Tisdale scored first for Maryville, and HVA’s Connor Mast drilled a shot past Ingleston, tying it at 1-1.
Meade’s goal gave the Rebels a 2-1 lead starting the second PK round; Ingleston then blocked a shot by Ben Brophy.
Ingleston scored for Maryville, making it 3-1; Hammer’s goal cut the deficit to 3-2 after three rounds.
Liam Meade’s goal made it 4-2, and Ingleston ended the game when he blocked Bobby Manrod’s shot.
Bradford said he was confident in the PK shootout because of Ingleston, a three-year starting keeper.
“Oh yeah, 1,000 percent,” Bradford said.
Stephens didn’t want her team to dwell on the loss.
“I told our kids, ‘You’ve got to be proud of what you did to get back into the game,’” she said. “You can’t look at PKs as, ‘Hey, that determines the whole game,’ because a lot of that is luck. Ultimately, you’ve got to look at the whole body of work. …Overall, I think the heart’s there and the grit’s there. We’ve just got to build off that.”
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