South-Doyle High School defeated Greeneville, 2-1, in the Class AA state soccer championship on Friday, May 21, 2024. (Photo by Tanner Walker)
BY DAVE LINK
MURFREESBORO — South-Doyle’s soccer team made South Knoxville a proud community Friday afternoon.
Sophomore Jude Straussfogel shook off an injury and scored two goals, lifting the Cherokees to a 2-1 victory over Greeneville in the Class AA state championship match at Siegel Soccer Complex.
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South-Doyle (20-3-2) had never won a state soccer match before Tuesday’s quarterfinal against Cocke County, and Friday won the school’s second state title in a boys’ team sport.
The Cherokees’ cross-country team won a state title in 1970.
“This is really for the community,” Straussfogel said. “This is the best day of my life probably and I know this community loves it as much as I do. It’s a good feeling to bring it back home to South Knoxville.”
South-Doyle upset Station Camp of Gallatin 1-0 in Wednesday’s semifinals, during which Straussfogel got kneed in the thigh.
“It swelled up and I had a massive bruise,” Straussfogel said. “I couldn’t walk. I had to take like 10 ice baths.”
Straussfogel’s status for Friday’s championship against Greeneville was doubtful. He didn’t start the game, but after the Greene Devils got a goal by Brody Inscore in the first minute, his status changed.
“They scored that first goal,” South-Doyle coach Sam Mitchell said, “and he says, ‘Coach, I’m playing.’”
Straussfogel played about half the match.
Greeneville (14-10-1) took a 1-0 lead into halftime, when it had eight shots to South-Doyle’s five.
Momentum changed in the second half.
In the 61st minute, Straussfogel took a pass from AnestisTiriakidis and knocked a shot past Greeneville goalkeeper Tanner Myers, tying the match at 1-1.
“Brody Bean played a great ball to Anestis,” Straussfogel said, “and he took on the defender, drew him out and played me square, and I just put it in the side of the net.”
Tiriakidis, MVP of the match, is an exchange student from Germany.
“When we heard he was coming over, we were all excited,” said junior goalkeeper Jonah Mitchell, the coach’s nephew. “We all started looking him up and were like, ‘This is going to be a fun dude to play with,’ and he was nothing shy of it.”
South-Doyle got a penalty kick in the 68th minute after a foul.
Straussfogel took the PK shot and fired a low shot past Myers, who dived in the right direction but couldn’t get to the ball.
“I thought I was scoring,” Straussfogel said. “I’ve taken like seven or eight this season, and this one was no different. The nerves didn’t really get to me on that one.”
Straussfogel said he’s not missed a PK shot this year.
“I was gonna sub for him (on the PK),” Mitchell said. “He buries it. You talk about incredible. That’s guts. That’s grit.”
South-Doyle kept the pressure on the Greene Devils throughout the second half, when it had 16 shots to Greeneville’s eight.
The Cherokees controlled much of possession after halftime.
“We woke up,” Sam Mitchell said. “We decided we wanted to win 50-50 balls, for one, actually started running through the ball.
“Also, when we get the ball on the ground and play the wide areas, it’s not that we won’t go over the top, but if we’ll at least get the ball to the wide areas, get guys out of position and get in behind them, it just opens up so much for us.”
With the 2-1 lead, the Cherokees fended off the Greene Devilsfor the remaining 11-plus minutes.
Jonah Mitchell finished with six saves, and Myers made seven saves.
“I grew up watching my uncles play at South-Doyle,” Mitchell said, “and to see them and the community rally behind us and for us win it all, it’s really special.”
It was extra special for Sam Mitchell, a 2015 South-Doyle graduate and former soccer player for the Cherokees.
His late mom, Mary Ann Mitchell, owned a daycare in South Knoxville. His late father, Lynn, ran a soccer league in the community.
“We’ve been around South-Doyle and South Knoxville soccer literally our whole lives,” Sam Mitchell said. “It’s such an incredible thing to bring this home. Our AD, coach (Daryl) Chandler, he comes running up to me and the first thing he saysis: ‘This would have meant so much to them. This would have been something they would have loved to see.’
“It feels so good to know what they have put into South Knoxville and what they have put into South-Doyle soccer just through younger generations. Man, to see a state championship coming home, they would be ecstatic.”
SPRING FLING PHOTOS powered by KOC — 2024 State Soccer Championships (Class AAA, Class AA, Class A)