The Avery men’s soccer team kept its recent string of strong play intact last week. On Monday, September 14th the Vikings pitched a 6-0 shut out against the Gryphons of Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy. On Wednesday, September 16th Avery battled tooth and nail with perennial 1A power Monday’s home affair with the Gryphons was one of the strongest performances by the Vikings squad all season. Avery netted three goals in the opening 40 minutes to take a 3-0 advantage to the locker room.
In the match’s fourth minute, Avery’s senior offensive juggernaut Kyle Griewisch broke away to beat the Gryphon keeper to give the Big Red a 1-0 advantage. That man Griewisch escaped the TJCA defense again in the 17th minute, as he peeled a second goal-scoring shot into the Gryphon net to put the Vikings ahead by a 2-0 score. As the match neared halftime, Avery’s Isauro Estrada took advantage of the Gryphon defense and scored to stake the Vikings their 3-0 bulge at intermission.
The second half continued to be a display of Avery dominance. Early in the second half of the match (43rd minute), Estrada scored his second goal of the match, ripping a ball past the TJCA net minder to take a 4-0 lead. At the 47 minute mark, Viking Zack Strange scored his first goal of the season as he rebounded a header shot and placed it in goal to push the Vikings ahead 5-0.
The final goal for the match provided Kyle Griewisch with a second hat trick on the season, as he scored in the 65th minute to provide for the final margin.
“I think at times we got sloppy, and our level of intensity and aggression wasn’t what I would have liked to see, but the guys did do some good stuff, not only preparing them for Hendersonville, but for the rest of the season,” Avery head soccer coach Tom Evaul said following the win. “We needed a win like this just to build team and individual confidence, but also because there are not going to be very many more opportunities this season to have the opportunities we had against Thomas Jefferson.”
On Wednesday the Vikings squared off with the Hendersonville Bearcats in a showdown of top-10 ranked clubs. Avery, ranked #10 in the most recent 1A poll, hosted the #4 ranked Bearcats in an intense and exciting soccer match.The Vikings were thrilled to welcome back senior defender Daniel Huff, who had missed most of the regular season due to injury. His presence was a welcome sight against the tough Bearcats.
“It was great to have Daniel Huff back. Our intention was to only play him limited time in order for his knee to not be too strained all at once, but it didn’t happen that way. He was such a factor for us in the middle of the field and on defense that he wound up playing the entire game!” Coach Evaul said. “Daniel’s return gives us so much more flexibility in how we play the field. We have already discussed some options we have available to us with him in the mix which will mix things up a little more. It will also put more pressure on some of the players that maybe haven’t really worked as hard in practice or played as hard as they could in games. Now they will have to give it a little more effort if they want to remain a starter.”
For the first 70 minutes of the match, the Vikings went toe-to-toe with the mighty
Avery countered the Bearcats attack with its own offensive flurry. Kyle Griewisch scored a pair of goals in the first half off assists from Isauro Estrada and Jorge Arreola. Estrada also blasted a shot past the
The second half was a battle of wills as each club looked for momentum and perhaps the game-winner. Avery fought tooth-and-nail with the Bearcats through the first 30 minutes of the second stanza, but the final ten minutes proved to be the difference in the match.
"We played really well against the #4 team in the state until the last 10 minutes. For some reason the intensity and focus we maintained throughout the first 70 minutes seemed to vanish, and we began to not play as smart,” Coach Evaul said. “We made bad, useless fouls, we gave them three corner kicks within a five-minute period, and instead of getting the ball down the field to our attackers, we just kept kicking it out of bounds repeatedly. If you offer nothing to your offense, you are stuck playing defense, and against a team that had three strong players up front, keeping them scoreless is pretty hard to do.”
With under two minutes remaining in the match Aguirre converted a free kick of around 35 yards which just slipped to the left of Vikings keeper Morgan Bounds and into the net to provide the winning margin.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed, but the guys did play another game playing above their level: great intensity, determination, aggressiveness, which is what we will need for the remainder of the season,” Coach Evaul said of his team’s effort. “I believe that if we could have gotten the ball up to the front at least a few times the last ten minutes of the game, the result would have been different. We gained a lot of confidence in the first 70 minutes, and despite the final result I feel the team has a better concept of just what they are capable of accomplishing. Let’s hope that lesson will carry on throughout the season.”
The Vikings traveled to
