Region tourney games bring close to soccer for Wildcats, Mavericks
The Oak Ridge High School boys soccer team saw its 2024 season come to an end in the Region 2-AAA tournament early last week.
The Wildcats won the District 3-AAA tournament on Saturday, May 11, avenging their regular-season penalty kicks shootout to Knoxville Halls.
But they lost to District 4-AAA runner-up Hardin Valley Acadeny 5-2 at home on Tuesday, May 14.
Oak Ridge got an early 1-0 lead against the Hawks when Eli Lynch took a cross from Emmett Lee and buried it into the back of the Hardin Valley net in the 11th minute of the match.
But the Hawks, who defeated Oak Ridge early in the regular season, answered in a big way as they rallied three times over the final 15 minutes of the opening half to hold a 3-1 advantage by halftime.
HVA’s Frank Manrod tallied the equalizer in the 26th minute, making the score 1-1. Ben Brophy had the next two markers of the match and his goals gave the Hawks the 3-1 advantage at the break. Brophy, who also plays basketball for the Hawks, tallied in the 28th minute before finding the back of the net again nine minutes later.
From there, the Hawks went on to win the region title before being eliminated in Saturday night’s state sectional with a 4-2 loss to Science Hill at home.
Hardin Valley added two more goals in the second half as Brady Hammer scored in the 46th minute and Jason See knocked in a rebound in the 53rd minute.
Nathan Kizzire scored Oak Ridge’s final goal of the 2024 campaign with about 10 minutes remaining in the match.
Even though the season ended, Oak Ridge Coach Tom Gorman spoke highly of the Wildcats’ accomplishments.
“There’s no regrets,” Gorman said. “We were able to win our district for the first time since these (senior) guys’ freshman year, so they bookended it.
“We’re really proud of our guys. They set a great example for our young guys, and we’ll have a good group of guys coming back.”
Mavericks fall in Region 2-AA semifinals: Anderson County saw its season come to an end early last week as they dropped a 5-0 decision to Cocke County in the region semifinals in Newport.
The Fighting Cocks went on to win the region title with a 5-1 win over Austin-East on Thursday. Cocke County also qualified for the state tournament as it won a sectional match against David Crockett 3-2 on Saturday. The Fighting Cocks also won the District 3-AA tournament championship as the tournament’s No. 1 seed with a shootout win over the Roadrunners.