WCHS soccer dusts Devils – Pioneers remain perfect in 7-AAA
So far this season the Pioneer soccer team has had little trouble in District 7-AAA action, and the team entered Thursday night?s contest against the Lebanon Blue Devils with a 3-0 district record.
Warren County continued its winning ways as a last-minute score put the Pioneers on top 3-2. The Pioneers improved to 4-0 in district action and 6-1 on the season with their only loss coming from Tullahoma.
The Pioneers found themselves down early after Adrian Ramirez fired a shot 12 minutes in, which skipped under the hands of goalkeeper Erik Stewart.
WCHS regained possession of the ball and put pressure on the Blue Devil defense. Austin Cleek found the back of the net after slipping past a Lebanon defender to tie the game at 1-1 with 30 minutes left to play in the first half.
The Pioneer offense started to control the tempo of the game and kept the ball in front of the Lebanon net. Three minutes later Warren County took a 2-1 lead on Tony Garibaldi?s score.
Offensively the Blue Devils had few runs, but when they did Warren County?s Saul Simpson and Travis Young were there to send the ball back to mid-field. With five minutes left in the half Young found an open Garibaldi, who was slicing through the middle of the field and headed the ball towards the goal, but Price Bishop came up with the save at goalie for Lebanon as Warren County went into the half with a 2-1 advantage.
The first solid opportunity for anyone to score in the second half came off of a free-kick for the Blue Devils at the 28-minute mark, but the shot was turned away by the Pioneer defense.
With time running down Diego Mota tied the game at 2-2 for Lebanon as he worked his way past one defender with 7:15 showing on the clock.
Warren County?s offense picked up the pace, and with 3:51 left in the game Garibaldi had a chance to give the Pioneers the lead, but his shot was kicked away. Cody Cowans followed with an attempt, but his shot missed to the left as time was becoming a factor.
Warren County continued to control the ball on offense and was pushing to find the winning goal. With under two minutes left to play, Garibaldi worked his way to the right side of the net and fired the game winning goal, which hit the far back side as time ran out giving the Pioneers the victory.
On the night the Pioneers had 11 attempts at goal, while Lebanon had six.
Warren County will be back in action on Thursday for a home non-district contest against St. Andrew?s-Sewanee.