By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — A brace apiece by Ben Myers and David Ganley, with single goals contributed by Curtis Sevensky and Alex Aguilar were just what the High Country soccer gods ordered for Watauga men’s soccer on Oct. 14 at Jack Groce Stadium. The Pioneers showed only a few indications of “rust” after more than a 2-week layoff caused by Hurricane Helene, soundly getting by Freedom to start Northwestern Conference play with 6-1 win.
“It was a 6-1 win,” said Pioneer head coach Josh Honeycutt afterwards. “I don’t think we should have (allowed) the goal and we should have scored more goals, but a win is a win. The first conference game and the first game back after a weird couple of weeks off, I’ll take it. That said, there are definitely a few things we can do better.
“We did improve in the second half,” Honeycutt added. “Our quality of play was much better. If it had been that way for both halves, it would have been a different game.”
Asked about how the unexpected time off affected his team’s overall fitness, Honeycutt didn’t balk.
“We were able to get back to practice last week and try to get back into some semblance of game shape,” the coach said. “As you know, for us fitness is huge. It is key. It is one of the things that we try to be better at than everybody else so we can play longer and better late in a game. We’re not quite there but definitely having that one week of practice helped.”
Assists on the night were credited to Lucas Hamilton, Sevensky, Aguilar and Myers.
On being able to get back to playing soccer after enduring the storm and its aftermath, Honeycutt gave a lot of credit to his players as well as the community.
“I can’t express enough how excited I am for these guys to get back to something more normal,” said Honeycutt. “It’s good for these kids and I appreciate the school, the school board, and the athletic director and everyone else involved to get things back in place, so they can get back to some normal life. For the most part everyone came out of it pretty unscathed, though obviously there were a lot who lost power like everyone else.
The Pioneers will see Freedom again on Wednesday, Oct. 16, in Morganton. Due to the impact of Hurricane Helene, the match has been moved to Mountain View Elementary, 805 Bouchelle Street, Morganton. The junior varsity match is slated for 4:30 p.m., the varsity match to immediately follow.
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