Recently, Bearden soccer coach Ryan Radcliffe has been emphasizing the importance of putting teams away early.
Seems like the message sunk in.
The defending Class 3A state champion Bulldogs scored four goals in the first half on Friday, knocking off Hardin Valley 5-1 at home to win the District 4-AAA tournament championship.
Radcliffe cited a 1-1 tie with Farragut and a 2-1 victory over Maryville in the district semifinals just two days ago as examples where Bearden did not keep its foot on the gas.
“There’s two weeks left in the season, and I’m trying to emphasize to the boys the fact that everybody is good, and if you don’t put them away when you have the opportunity, you’re going to let a good team back in the game,” Radcliffe said.
“Yes, finally we had a game where we kept our foot on the pedal and we saw the result. That’s what I told the boys at halftime, ‘this is fun, make sure it doesn’t stop being fun, keep it up, enjoy it.’
“It’s a huge crowd, we had a great student section, and I thought everything that could have gone well, went well for us tonight, and hopefully we can keep it going.”
Bearden (16-1-1) hosts Halls on Tuesday in the Region 2-AAA Tournament elimination semifinals. Hardin Valley (13-3-3) travels to District 3-AAA champion Oak Ridge.
Hardin Valley had not surrendered more than two goals in a game all season, but trailed 3-0 less than 10 minutes into Friday’s contest.
Bearden scored in the 1st minute on a goal that Bearden credited to forward Lucas Ford, but Hardin Valley coach Ray Dover called an own goal. Whatever it was, it gave the top-seeded Bulldogs momentum.
Junior forward Aidan Ainsworth scored goals No. 2 and 3 for Bearden in the 4th and 9th minutes, respectively.
His first was about a 10-yard strike played out wide and centered to him.
The second was off a corner kick. Isaac Martinez took the corner and played it long to Addison Johnson. Johnson then set up Ainsworth in the box for a header.
Ainsworth has six goals in the Bulldogs’ past six games.
“He’s a workhorse,” Radcliffe said about Ainsworth.
“He came on last year, and we weren’t really expecting him to have a big role last year as a sophomore, and he kept proving points in practice, and it eventually got to the point last year where we said we can’t not give this guy a chance.
“And all he did was come in last year, earn the spot, started in the spot, and ended up being a vital factor in our state championship run. And he’s huge this year. I think he’s bigger, he’s stronger, he’s faster and he’s hungry.”
Fresh into the game, Hardin Valley’s Asher Stimson drilled a mid-range goal perfectly into the lower left side of the goal past diving Bearden goalkeeper Logan Nelson in the 12th minute.
Stimson was the bright spot for the No. 2-seeded Hawks on Friday, with a few other chances at goals on top of the one he did score.
Dover said the communication and effort were not there for his team.
“Got outplayed, got out-communicated, it was way too quiet out there,” Dover said.
“They jumped on us in the first, we gave up the own goal and then we had to start changing up things tactically, so I felt like we were going to have to throw caution to the wind.
“They deserved it and we got embarrassed. Now what matters is what we do with it. What we’re going to do with it is we’re going to watch this film, and it’s going to hurt a lot and it needs to, and we’re going to go out and train and fix what needs to be fixed, but there’s got to be enough desire and intensity level to get it done.”
Senior Jashua Garcia put Bearden ahead 4-1 in the 29th minute shortly after a free kick that the Hardin Valley defense could not clear. The ball found its way to Garcia and the reserve put it in.
The Bulldogs went up 5-1 in the 46th minute on a goal from Isaac Martinez that was assisted by Preston Ford, his second of the game. The ball was played deep in Hardin Valley territory, nearly going out of bounds to the right side of the goal. But Ford corralled it and passed it to an open Martinez.
Nelson and the Bearden defense have not allowed more than one goal in a game this season. It looked like it may be a possibility with the fast pace Friday’s game started with, but the Bulldogs slowed things down in the second half with a comfortable lead.
“I think our ability to trust each other was on display tonight,” Radcliffe said.
“We’ve had games where things haven’t been going right, and we’ve tried to be a lot of individuals trying to break down a team. And I thought every one of the goals we scored came from each of the players finding each other, and being willing to give up the ball and being willing to move it.
“And that’s been our message, we’re a talented group, we’ve got talent, we’ve got goal scorers, but it’s easy to mark a team if you’ve only got one player trying to dribble, and I thought there was a lot of unselfish play.”
Article written by Matthew Lutey/5Star Preps To read more on area high school sports or to see photo galleries, videos, stat leaders, etc… visit 5StarPreps.com — and use promo code New2024 for 30% off your first year or month subscription.
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