Central Gets Key District Result Over South
by STEVE WILMOTHTriCitiesSports.com
September 14, 2018
BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. -- For Sullivan Central girls’ soccer coach Emily Robinette, a a result in a friendly with Sullivan South is tops on the list every year.
Thursday evening on the pitch at Bernie Webb Field, two quick early strikes set the tone for the Lady Cougars’ 5-2 district victory over the Lady Rebels.
“I’m proud for our school to have a win over South,” said Robinette. “To defeat South is one of the most important things all season.”
It was also a key District 1-AA triumph for Central and huge for a young squad that starts three sophomores and one freshman on the back row and a freshman keeper that’s new to the game this year, and often finds seven freshman on the pitch at any given time.
“They make mistakes, but they seem to be making less mistakes,” noted Robinette.
The Lady Cougars opened with seven straight defeats against the likes of Morristown West, Dobyns-Bennett, Knox Central, Rhea County and Boone County, Kentucky.
The win over South is the fourth straight for Central including a second consecutive district result
“As they keep working, they are getting better,” continued Robinette. “We’ve played teams that have helped get us ready for conference games.”
In the first seven contests of the campaign, Central totaled just seven goals. Coming into the South match-up, the Lady Cougars had nine tallies in their last three outings.
Two early goals gave Central the momentum against South. Rylie Patrick scored first in the 12th minute via an assist from Emme Fox. Senior and coaches’ daughter, Rachel Robinette found the back of the net just five minutes later.
“Those were big for us,” said coach Robinette. “The first few games of the season we had not been scoring early. We needed to score early and we did.”
Robinette said her tally came from a perfect through ball from Lexi Hill.
“I had a wide open shot with just me and the keeper and i kicked it into the left corner,” explained Rachel Robinette. “It means a lot to beat South. They are our rival and it always feels good to beat them, especially on our home field.”
South’s Rachel Phillips sliced the lead in half in the 21st minute, but a minute later the Lady Cougars were back up by two wne Hill scored off a feed from Jessie Lange.
The score held until halftime and until just ten minutes remained in the contest. South did have a wide-open shot in the box to get within a goal, but an attempt went directly to Central keeper Jaelyn West.
“We just need to get used to touching and juggling...sometimes it’s not a lot just a little something to get it around the keeper instead of going right at them,” said South coach Luci Creech.
Emme Fox scored twice in a two minute span to push the Central cushion to 5-2. It was also the second brace in as many conference contests for Fox.
“It gets really exciting when your teammates count on you and have confidence in you,” said Fox. “I got out front on the second one and I just knew I had to keep going.
“A lot of things are going through my mind like maybe passing it to a teammate, but something told me to just go for it.”
South’s Abby Clark moved from the back to the front late in the match and produced the Lady Rebels’ second goal in with less than three minutes to play.
It was one of the rare breakthroughs against West, a freshman who made eight saves and had whom had never played soccer before this year.
“(Coach) Emily (Robinette) asked me (to play),” said West. “I just like doing stuff with my hands so I decided to be a goalie. I’ve worked very hard in practice at it.”
South’s Creech came away very impressed with the Lady Cougars.
“They’ve got girls that know where to be and where to pass,” explained Creech. “We would have a good pass in the right direction, but nobody was there. We need to know what to do off the ball.”
The teams were scheduled to play twice this season. Thursday’s match was originally set at South as a non-district match, but after heavy rain washed out last week’s league fixture at Central, the move was made to insure the district version was played as required. The non-league match-up is not expected to be rescheduled.