White House, White House Heritage soccer remain on collision course

The White House High soccer team would love nothing more than another trip to the state tournament. White House Heritage would love nothing more than to join them.

With that in mind, both teams could be forgiven — at least a little - if they had at least one eye on the postseason when the city rivals met Thursday night at White House.

Still, it's a rivalry.

"It's really big whether it's football, basketball, soccer, or anything," said White House junior Donovan Dixon. "It's always competitive. We always push each other, and it's a close game every time."

Dixon scored goals in each half as White House defeated the Patriots 2-0, raising the Blue Devils' record to 9-2-1, 4-0 in District 9-A/AA. Heritage fell to 8-3-1, 3-1.

"They played well and smart all over the field," Heritage coach Seth Kirby said. "We just didn't have an answer."

Potential district championship preview

If the past in any indication, the two will see each other again. The teams have met five times the last two years, including three times in the postseason.

"I fully expect to see them in the district finals," White House coach Mark Lamberth said. "It's a just a matter of who gets to wear blue and who gets to wear white."

The tournament semifinals and finals will be at Middle Tennessee Christian in Murfreesboro.

Last year, White House won a pair of 2-1 decisions, the latter coming in the district championship game. The Blue Devils advanced to the state tournament for the fourth time in six years, losing a quarterfinal to Greeneville on penalty kicks, 2-1.

In 2015, Heritage won 4-0 in the regular season, while White House won 3-0 in the district final and Heritage took the region title with a 3-2 win. Both sides lost in a sectional.

Rivals on similar paths

Both teams have challenged themselves in the non-district portion of the schedule, with the only losses coming to Class AAA schools.

"We're hoping to win state," Dixon said. "We've set our goals high."

Dixon's goal in the first half came in the final minutes when he stole the ball outside the Heritage goal box and scored about 15 yards out. On the other goal, he took a pass from Matt Hooper on a counterattack and hit the back post.

Heritage's solace might be the fact a rematch seems very likely.

"It's not a season-ending game, so we can't drop our head," Kirby said. "I think we learned a lot about ourselves."