McCallie’s Blue Tornado men’s soccer team has made a statement loud and clear this season. As it stands McCallie isundefeated with a record of 10-0-1 after they delivered another win on Tuesday night at home. Knoxville Webb came to their turf in hopes to turn their season around. Unfortunately for them, that was not to be the case as McCallie shut them out 5-0.
From the start McCallie controlled the game. They played possession extremely well which has to do with the high level of players they have, as well as the way they lined up. They are coached to use a 4-4-2 diamond midfield. This allowed them to move their outside backs wider and play more on the wing and move the ball quickly in and out with ease. Their chemistry has also played a huge part in their success this season. They seemed to know exactly when and where each other were on the pitch at all times.
The biggest thing that you could see from the Blue Tornado was their defensive press. Wherever the ball went, they went. They got to the ball quickly leaving no room for error and forced Webb to make mistake after mistake. This led them to scoring rather quickly with the first goal coming from Dylan Capazario. It happened so fast with a ball over the top that the defense had no way to stop it. Capazario scored with little effort needed due to how perfectly the ball found him.
The next and final goal of the first half came from unfortunate circumstances for the Spartans. A ball played into the box takes a bad bounce off Peter Hollenbach’s arm to give McCallie a penalty. Daniel McCarthy takes it with confidence and puts it in the side net. McCallie go into halftime with a 2-0 lead and all the momentum.
The second did no change anything for either team. If anything, it just proved McCallie as the better team. Three more goals followed the whistle. The first was from Kenneth Chime after another ball played over top from Gordon Lewis. Capazario scored quickly after again to make it 4-0 after a ball landed right at his feet off the cross. And finally, Chime scored his second of the night after a free kick finds him and he smashes it in to secure the game and allow the Blue Tornado to put in the reserves.
In the final minutes of play Knoxville Webb’s Greyson Webb received his second yellow for a red card. He will have to miss their next game. After all of this it still seemed like McCallie would still score a few more times. The depth they have on their roster was still more than capable of winning that game. The future is bright for McCallie’s Soccer program. No one knows this more than their head coach Chris Cushenberry. He had a lot to say after the game that showed the character and ability of his team and coaching staff.
“I thought it was pretty good, we created a lot of chances, we didn’t concede very many chances. We scored in the run of play and scored on set pieces. We did a lot of things and were pretty good. Our best is good enough and we know if we play our best we can beat anybody, and I feel like we will win every game if we play our best. Pretty good leaves things up in the air so we want to figure out how to be our best.”
Next up for the blue is against long time local rival Baylor. In more recent years Baylor has become known to be one of the best teams in the state. This makes playing them next Tuesday all the more important. If McCallie wins or ties, they clinch the one seed in regionals. No game is a giveaway. Especially when both teams are of high class. Coach Cushenberry spoke on how he will go into that game.
“It is going to be an interesting tactical battle. They have some really solid players that you have to game plan for. It is an interesting matchup of how do we get to do the things we want to do and keep them from doing the things that they want to do. We are going to have a good week of training this week and fitter and get sharper. Hopefully the excitement of that rivalry will give us a few good days of practice. The boys are pumped up and ready to get over there and play well.”
Baylor is the last game McCallie plays before regionals. They believe they are the best team and Chattanooga and even more, they believe they are the best in the state. A team with that much talent and confidence is dangerous and difficult to beat.
Game Summary
Knoxville Webb 0 0 --0
McCallie 2 3 --5
Goal Scorers-
McCallie: Dylan Capazario 2, Kenneth Chime 2, Daniel McCarthy.
Assists: Gordon Lewis, Elliot Arnold
(Email Alex McElyea at alexmcelyea26@gmail.com)