Prep roundup: Devils play perennial powers

MEMPHIS – The White House High School boys soccer team suffered three losses last weekend but accomplished its goal in a road trip to the Memphis area for the Rivalry Classic Tournament.

“We're coming out of this as a better team, a closer-knit team with better chemistry than we were when we went down there,” Blue Devil head coach Mark Lamberth said. “Even though we went 0-3, we as coaches feel as if it was a successful trip.”

White House suffered a 2-0 loss at Christian Brothers on Friday.

The contest was scoreless at halftime, but the Wave scored at the 58:00 and 69:00 marks.

The Blue Devils were outshot 14-2, and White House senior goalkeeper Matthew Howard finished with seven saves.

Christian Brothers has won eight state championships and finished as the state runner-up six times.

The Wave improved to 5-1-2 with Friday's win.

“We played hard the whole time,” Lamberth said. “They were just a team that was a lot better than us. Their touch skills, positioning off of each other and their communication in the attack was very impressive.

“When we lost to Brentwood (in the team's season opener on March 11), I didn't feel it was a 4-0 loss. We played better than that. In this 2-0 loss, we played hard, but they were a lot better than us.”

In a rematch with Christian Academy of Knoxville on Saturday afternoon, the Blue Devils suffered a 1-0 loss.

White House suffered a 3-2 loss to CAK in the Class A-AA state semifinals last May, and the Warriors defeated Kingsbury by a 2-1 score in the championship match to claim their eighth state title over the last 11 seasons.

The Blue Devils outshot CAK by a 7-6 margin on Saturday, holding a 5-1 edge in shots after halftime.

However, the Warriors (9-0-2) cashed in on their only second-half opportunity, converting on a one-on-one shot that was created thanks to a through ball.

Howard finished with four saves.

“It's a game we can look back on and say that we did a lot of good things,” Lamberth said. “We played very well against a very good team.”

White House suffered a 2-1 loss to Kingsbury on Sunday morning.

“It's hard to say as a coach when you lose three games in a weekend that you are coming out of it a better team, but we are,” Lamberth said. “We played very well on Saturday and Sunday. We played hard on Friday, but Christian Brothers was just that much better than us.

“We played a very good Kingsbury team (on Sunday).”

The Blue Devils had a first-half goal disallowed but then scored during extended time.

White House senior midfielder Chase Midgett played a through ball to senior forward Tyler Wilkes, and Wilkes converted on the one-on-one opportunity.

However, the Falcons scored the tying goal with eight minutes remaining and then produced the go-ahead goal with two minutes to play.

Kingsbury (3-2-4) outshot the Blue Devils 12-9, and Howard finished with eight saves.

“We played very well,” Lamberth – whose squad fell to 5-4-2 – said. “For the first 20 minutes, they were on our end of the field most of the time. Once we settled down and got our legs back under us, we played very well and stayed on their end a lot.

“They had some tremendous players who were able to finish some one on ones with Matty. When we were up 1-0, there was a period of about 20 minutes where we had three one-on-ones with their keeper and just missed wide of the post. We had three really good opportunities to go up 2-0 in the game and just didn't get it done.”

The Falcons have been the state runners-up for the last three seasons.

White House was slated to play at Middle Tennessee Christian on Monday and against visiting Community High on Tuesday. The Blue Devils play at Hunters Lane on Thursday evening at 7.

Eagle squad splits

GAINESBORO – The Westmoreland High School baseball team split a pair of games on Saturday in the Alex Cassetty Classic at Jackson County High School.

The Eagles had their Friday-night game against the host squad rained out, but Westmoreland rolled to a 15-0, five-inning victory over visiting Monterey on Saturday afternoon.

Eagle sophomore Tyler McLoughlin picked up the complete-game victory, limiting the Wildcats to three hits. McLoughlin (2-1) issued three base on balls and struck out seven hitters.

Westmoreland scored three runs in the first inning, added five in the second, four in the fourth and three in the fifth.

Seniors Blake Holmes and Brandon Troutt singled in runs in the first inning, and classmate Nathan Crawford doubled in a run to get the Eagle offense started.

Westmoreland finished with 15 hits. Crawford, McLoughlin, Troutt, Jordan Holmes and Grant Oliver all had two hits, and both McLoughlin and Jordan Holmes drove in three runs.

Eagle senior Patrick French scored three runs, and both Crawford and Troutt scored two runs and drove in two runs.

Crawford reached base in all four of his plate appearances, via two base on balls and two hits.

Westmoreland suffered an 8-3 loss to Watertown later Saturday.

The Eagles took the early lead with a two-run first inning.

Troutt drew a one-out walk, and Crawford and French followed with singles to load the bases. Blake Holmes drew a walk to force in Troutt, and senior E.J. Graves' sacrifice fly allowed Crawford to score.

The Tigers took the lead with a three-run second inning and added four runs in the fourth and one in the fifth. McLoughlin led off the fourth inning with a single and scored his squad's final run when Oliver tripled.

McLoughlin had two of his squad's seven hits against the Purple Tigers.

Blake Holmes (1-1) went the distance on the mound, allowing seven hits. The right-hander issued three base on balls and struck out two hitters.

Westmoreland fell to 9-7.

The Eagles were slated to play a doubleheader at Harpeth on Tuesday and will be playing in the East Robertson Classic from Thursday through Saturday, facing Macon County on Thursday evening at 5:15, Gordonsville on Friday afternoon at 12:15, West Creek on Saturday afternoon at 12:15 (with that contest played at Springfield High) and East Robertson on Saturday evening at 7.

Hawks get shutout win

HENDERSONVILLE – The Merrol Hyde Magnet boys’ soccer team had goals from Patrick Carr, Trevor Skeith and Dylan DeVries in a 3-0 victory over visiting Livingston Academy on Friday evening.

Jacob Stinson made five saves to earn the shutout in goal for the Hawks, who improved to 7-2 overall and 3-1 in District 8 A-AA play with the victory.