By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Two second half goals proved to be the winning difference on Oct. 30, as Watauga men’s soccer prevailed, 3-1, against visiting Alexander Central.
“It was not the prettiest soccer,” said Watauga head coach Josh Honeycutt after the final buzzer. “But it was a win.”
The first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes were classic Watauga soccer, moving the ball downfield with short, possession-priority passing and working the ball into the opponent’s net. In between, the style of play was something else, even lethargic at times.
“We got away from our short passing game and lapsed back into Alexander Central’s game with long passes and keeping the ball in the air a lot,” admitted Honeycutt.”
Curtis Sevensky scored in the first four minutes of the game and then a see-saw, defensive battle ensued. Although the Pioneers seemed in control for much of the early part of the first half, that changed as the Cougars grew more dominant late in the half. In the second half, much of the game was played in the middle third of the field, without much in the way of opportunistic attacks by either side until the later phases of the game.
Noah Bauler came off the bench to knock in a goal past the midway point of the second half, then Alexander Central answered with a goal, with about five minutes to play. Then, near the two minute mark, the Pioneers’ Ben Myers found himself alone with the ball on the left wing, dribbled up field with a defender closing in from midfield, the rifled a shot along the ground. His feint had the goalkeeper diving left for a stop, but the ball whistled past him on his right and into the net. Myers goal allowed the Pioneers to retake a two-goal lead into what would become Alexander Central’s desperation minutes.
There was a bit of confusion at the end, and controversy. The Cougars were awarded a free kick and quickly put the ball in play, moving it past an almost motionless Watauga team to score an apparent goal. But the head referee had already started marching off 10 yards from the spot of the penalty, to move the Watauga wall back, and had not blown his whistle to restart play. He ordered the goal disallowed and brought Alexander Central back to take the free kick, much to the consternation of the Cougar coaches, players and fans. But, by rule, once the official starts marching off 10 yards play should be stopped until he blows his whistle to restart so, according to our sources, he made the correct ruling.
In addition to his second half goal, Myers was credited with an assist on Sevensky’s early goal as well as an assist on Bauler’s score.
Watauga had only six shots on goal, three of which went in. They were only awarded two corner kicks. Pioneer goalkeeper Jude Jackson recorded five saves on the night, his second half replacement, Solomon Triplett, had two saves and allowed one goal.
With the win, Watauga’s overall record improves to 15-3-2, and still undefeated at 7-0 in Northwestern Conference play. That unblemished record in league play will be tested on Oct. 31, vs. Ashe County on the Jack Groce Stadium field. Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m.
In the curtain raiser match of the evening, Watauga’s junior varsity and Alexander Central’s junior varsity battled to a 0-0 tie.
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