(JEFFERSON) The Avery Lady Vikings soccer team remained undefeated with a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Ashe County in Jefferson Thursday evening.
Ashe County scored in the latter stages of the opening half on a clear but cool evening to lead 1-0 at halftime. After making adjustments at the half, Avery came out more determined and active on the offensive half of the field, putting pressure on an Ashe squad. Around the 65th minute of the match, Avery freshman Mary Chesnut Smith slipped a shot to the right of the Huskies keeper for the equalizer to tie up the match.
With 8:20 remaining in the match, a Brianna Strange shot deflected off the Ashe keeper. Freshman Melinda Eggers alertly was on the spot to blast the rebound into the back of the net for the eventual game winning goal.
"We talked at halftime about not backing down against the bigger, more experienced girls from Ashe," head coach Tom Evaul said after the win. "We told the girls to not back down in the second half and to take the game to them. We made a couple of changes and changed our frontline to a 3-3 instead of a 2-4 which gave us a little more offense, and that seemed to work for us. We've asked Mary Chesnut to take shots for us when they are available to her, and she took a shot which worked well. We're really proud of the girls' effort tonight."
Although Avery is a relatively young squad with around 8 freshman players, the club shows experience and savvy which belies its age. Meanwhile, a number of returning players provide leadership which as the season continues will gel the Lady Vikings into a dangerous team on the pitch.
"I remember when the sisters of Melinda, Mary Chesnut, and Emily (Banner) were playing. In no way do I mean to upset those former players who may read this, but this group of freshmen is by far the best group of freshmen we've had come in as far as knowledge of the ball, knowledge of the field, the way they play the field, passing the ball," Coach Evaul commented. "I'm just really pleased with this group of freshmen. Our younger girls who are inexperienced have done a really good job considering they really haven't played. The past two games have helped us a lot but we still have a ways to go, but we'll also be mixing in the basketball players who we'll soon have joining us full-time and I believe we'll be ahead of schedule in terms of where we want to be as a team."
NOTE: The Avery home match against Owen originally scheduled for this Monday has been changed to a road game, as the team will instead now travel to Swannanoa for their conference opener next week.
