H.S. SOCCER: USJ wins Best of the West title

Not playing on Saturday didn’t affect the chances of the University School of Jackson boys’ soccer team winning the Best of the West championship.

The Bruins played their third match of the tournament on Friday evening and finished with 24 points after beating North Side 4-1 and Dyersburg 5-0 along with a 2-2 tie against Chester County.

Lexington needed eight points out of Saturday’s match against Dyersburg to win the title themselves, but a 3-3 tie against the Trojans gave the title to USJ by one point (24-23).

“It was a good tournament,” USJ coach Paul Conway said. “We played well this week, and it is good to play well and win your own tournament. We had injuries, but we played with resilience Friday night not to give up a goal.”

Chester County finished in third place with 21 points.

Lexington took the upper hand early as freshman Tristan Lowery scored two minutes into the match when the shot was misplayed by the Dyersburg goalkeeper.

The 1-0 scoreline would have given the Tigers the needed eight points to win the title, but Dyersburg scored three unanswered goals to take a 3-1 lead.

“We just weren’t aggressive enough,” Lexington coach Kirk Childers said. “We were not playing the right way. We did not win balls in the air, and we were chasing. We were passing all right, but we couldn’t get the final ball.”

Edgar Gonzalez scored in the 17th minute to tie the match before a penalty kick by Ian Bumpas and goal by Coleman Self in the second half gave the Trojans the lead.

That is when Childers made a change to the formation for more of an attack.

“After Dyersburg scored, we took a defender off and pushed forward,” Childers said. “We got the first goal and had some momentum that led to the second goal. I thought we were going to get a third but just couldn’t get it in.”

The Tigers had to score three goals in 13 minutes to win the tournament.

Lowery scored his second goal in the 72nd minute to cut Dyersburg’s lead to 3-2, and a header by Milton Alvarado tied it up in the 78th minute.

But Lexington could not get the game-winner.

Conway feels his team’s showing in the tournament can turn out to be an asset going into the Division II-A West region tournament.

“With a tournament like this, you felt like there was something on the line,” Conway said. “This lets the players get in that mentality for the postseason. When we gave up the two goals to Chester County for the tie, it felt like a loss. Hopefully, we can take some momentum from this.”

USJ’s Charles Campbell was named the tournament MVP after recording three goals and four assists.

Michael Odom, 425-9754