Broncos battle to scoreless tie
The Boyd Broncos took on district 8-A foes Mt. Juliet Monday afternoon at Boyd Christian, and after 90 minutes of play the teams had to settle for a scoreless tie.
Highly talented Mt. Juliet met its match against the (3-1-1) Broncos, with both teams playing very aggressive defense. Boyd opened up the first half putting pressure on Mt. Juliet goalie Matt Norris, firing six shots in the first five minutes of play.
Later in the first half Mt. Juliet pushed the ball downfield and put a little pressure on Bronco goalie Jay Medley, who kept Mt. Juliet shut out the first half with seven saves.
Boyd drove downfield with two minutes left in the first half and fired two shots, but their attempts went just over the crossbar, sending the teams into halftime with a blank scoreboard.
“We are taking good shots but are having a hard time following them up,” Boyd coach Keri Hertwig said at the half. “Mt. Juliet is a very good team, and we have to keep putting pressure on their goalie like we did in the first half.”
The second half started out very physically, and both teams knew they would be in for a hard-fought 40 minutes. Boyd fired the first shot in the half, as Mt. Juliet had to play defense for the first eight minutes.
Mt. Juliet tried to take advantage of Boyd’s aggressive offense and catch the Broncos short-handed on the defensive side of the field but Bronco goalie Medley turned away four shots midway through the second half to keep the game scoreless.
With three minutes left to play Boyd played very aggressively, unloading three quick shots at goal, but was unable to score. Mt. Juliet drove back downfield with one minute left in the game and fired wide right. With time running out Boyd fired two desperation shots as time ran of the clock, but had to settle for the scoreless tie.
Boyd had 28 shots on goal, with Medley turning away 18 shots from Mt. Juliet. Arne Alberts had 14 shots, Casey Hertwig, Eric Phillips, Tyler Hall and Clint Patterson had three shots each and John Woodlee took two shots for the Broncos.
“We played a very good game tonight and our guys should be very proud of their effort,” Hertwig said. “Mt. Juliet won the district last year and we did a great job of shutting them down tonight.”
“We put a lot of pressure on their goalie and we never let up. We had a lot of opportunities but just couldn’t get the ball in the goal.”
Boyd is now 1-0-1 in district play and will play Benton Hall on Saturday at Franklin.