Tazewell boys shine in Southwest Virginia Cup

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Tazewell boys shine in Southwest Virginia Cup

 

By JED LOCKETT

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

 

TAZEWELL, Va. — In a few short years, the Southwest Virginia Cup has grown from a small local tournament to a large gathering of some of the best high-school soccer teams in Four Seasons Country.

 

But on Saturday at Lincolnshire Park, it was the teams closest to home that made the biggest impressions as Tazewell got up for a 9:45 a.m. kickoff to beat Lebanon 1-0 in the boys’ opener and Richlands cruised to a 3-0 win over Lebanon and held on for a 2-0 victory over Grayson County.

 

The hometown Bulldogs found themselves in a fight against the Pioneers. It took them about 10 minutes before they began to take control of the game and begin piling up scoring chances. But many of those attempts were not on target.

 

“We were a little rusty. But we seemed to get some people in the right positions,†said Tazewell head coach Jeremy Call. “I’m just real proud of the guys. For our first game, I thought we did pretty good. We’ve got a few things to work on. Obviously we can always work on something. But I think overall we did a pretty good job.â€

 

Eventually Tazewell found the net. Junior Jarrod Angles made up for a miss in front of goal in the 27th minute with a header off a Harrison Lutz cross in the 36th minute.

 

The Bulldogs limited Lebanon to one shot on goal in the final half hour and were able to close out the game by continuing to attack the Pioneers.

 

“We’ve got some young players up top in the offensive end of it,†said Lebanon head coach David Jenks. “But they’re learning, beginning to play together a little better. I see improvement every week and this week I think they did pretty well.â€

 

“I think nerves has a lot to do with it,†Call said. “Once we got used to the pace of the game we were able to settle down and be able to get things going the way we wanted.

 

“You can’t mimic the speed of the game.â€

 

Tazewell (1-0) will begin Southwest District play at home Monday against Abingdon.

 

“Unfortunately we don’t have a whole lot of practice time,†Call said. “We just have to make some adjustments on the fly. We need to pull our defensive midfielders up a little bit and get everybody situated and maybe quick starts, our starts were a little slow.

 

“I think just a few adjustments here and there, quick starts, and probably diagonal passing on the ground. Other than that I think we’re good to go.â€

 

When the Blue Tornado touched down for their match against Lebanon, it did some damage. Romulo Fajardo scored Richlands’ first goal in the sixth minute when he dribbled into the penalty area and beat Pioneers’ netminder Logan Brenner.

 

“Romulo is out and he’s phenomenal,†said Richlands head coach Dennis Carr. “He can handle the ball. He gets in there. He gives you a big, physical presence.â€

 

Eight minutes later, Kheven Schweingruber fired a shot on Brenner. Brenner saved the shot, but the ball deflected off Schweingruber and between the pipes. Zac Lester closed out the game in the 53rd minute when he put in a rebound.

 

The Tornado outshot the Pioneers 27-1 and had 16 shots on goal in a dominating performance.

 

“Lebanon’s a young team but they’ve got good players,†Carr said. “Whenever they come together as a team they’re going to be very challenging to play every time.

 

“So fortunately today we were able to move the ball around and do what we we’re able to do and as a result came out with a win.â€

 

“Richlands is tough. They really are,†Jenks said. “They play well. They’re a very well-coached team. They understand the game. We played a scrimmage against them about a week and a half ago and they got us 7-0. You know it’s kind of hard to compete against a team that’s played together and got the chemistry they do.â€

 

Richlands kept their momentum going through the first half against Grayson County. Fajardo scored what may have been the most impressive goal of the day, finding a way to control a bouncing ball while fighting off a defender before finding the net with a right-footed volley.

 

But as the second half began, the Tornado finally began to run out of steam. The Blue Devils repeatedly threatened to score, earning six corner kicks.

 

“It was a much more physical game in the second game we played today,†Carr said. “Grayson was definitely more physical than some of the teams we’ve played thus far.

 

“We started making passes that were better than we’re able to right now to make those passes and as a result we ended up giving them more offensive chances than we probably should’ve given them.â€

 

But they could not translate them into attacks as Tornado goalkeeper Chad Cole kept control of the Blues’ penalty area and Richlands held Grayson without a shot in the second half.

 

“From the team that we’ve got, in practice he gets tons of shots taken on him,†Carr said. “The kid is phenomenal. He is unbelievable. The first day he ever played soccer was February 25th of this year.

 

“It was the position I was most concerned about going into this season and the opening day of the season it’s the position I’m probably the most confident about.â€

 

Schweingruber put the game out of reach in the 55th minute when the ball popped up after a collision in Grayson’s six-yard box and he tapped it in with his head.

 

Richlands (2-0) will host Carroll County on Monday to open their district schedule.

 

“It’s a huge confidence boost anytime you get a win,†Carr said. “But I’m just encouraged because coming into this game there were a couple areas where we were weak and we just really stressed this week in practice and the guys did a really good job correcting their inadequacies.â€