Murphy – After Murphy soccer put up just one goal in the first half against Tri-County Early College on Sept. 20, despite dominating possession, the floodgates opened in the second half.
The Bulldogs put up four goals over a 13-minute period for a 5-0 win against their in-county foe. It came from being proactive rather than reactive.
“In the second half we started making decisions before we got the ball,” Murphy head coach Andrew Zenobi said. “We talked about it at halftime. In previous games, we were not making an effort to be the first to the ball, and then we changed that.”
Though Murphy (3-3-1 overall, 3-2-1 Smoky Mountain Conference) is third in the conference standings, while the Jaguars are seventh (0-5-1, 0-5-1), there are some intangibles that made this match closer than it appeared on paper.
The two teams both play their home games at Murphy High School. Murphy practices at the field behind Lowe’s, while Tri-County practices on the inside of Murphy High’s track. Both team’s players have grown up together and played against each other, so they know who the best players are before looking at the scouting report.
It was an intense first half, though both teams had chances. Tri-County had three shots in the first half, two by Andrew White and one by Elias Diaz-Menchu, but all were saved by Murphy goalie Cale Harger. Tri-County came out with a purpose and did not want the game dictated to them, a change from previous games.
“Instead of having to be told at halftime to be more aggressive, they came out from the get-go and showed their aggressiveness,” head coach Chris Blanton said.
Murphy had some chances it didn’t convert in the first half, but the one goal was a great run. Jerry Bui threw the ball in on the right side of the field to a streaking Sam Lewis, who crossed the ball to Nathan Johnson. Johnson then corralled the ball, and on his second touch fired it into the back of the net with 17:28 to go in the first half.
In the second half, Murphy was a little bit quicker to make decisions and made a formation change by putting Jayden Rivera up top as a striker. It worked, with Rivera scoring a second half trick.
After the Bulldogs didn’t capitalize on some set pieces early in the second half, Rivera increased Murphy’s lead to 2-0 after putting away a corner kick that never got cleared. Less than three minutes later with 21:18 remaining he scored off a pass by Tyler Payne. Then with 14:19 remaining, Sam Lewis
threaded a pass to Rivera on the left side, and he finished for a 4-0 Murphy lead.
“They know who our best players are, and they’re ready for those players to get the ball,” Zenobi said of Tri-County. “When that happens the other players need to step up and make plays, and Jayden did that in spades today.”
Lewis would score the final goal of the night with 9:46 to go, dribbling out wide on the right side to draw the goalie out and give himself a perfect shooting angle.
While Blanton thought his team got tired in the second half, he’s seen improvement in the team’s recent games. Before playing Murphy, the Jaguars played the two best teams in the conference in Blue Ridge and Highlands, who Blanton said provide a much different challenge because of their quick ball movement.
It helped show his team the importance of quick passing and forced them to focus on body position on defense instead of just jabbing at the ball. But passing and ball movement is what needs to be most improved going forward.
“We need to keep moving the ball,” Blanton said. “... It should not be on your foot for too long a period of time because most of the teams in this conference are too good to do that, and they’re going to take and go the other way with it.”
For Murphy, Zenobi is continuing to try to tweak things to play a bit more of an offensive style. Even though the Bulldogs stuck with a 4-3-3 formation for most of the game, he had his four defenders play high up the field to create pressure.
“It’s what my team is comfortable with, but we’re gradually starting to move away from that.” Zenobi said. “But it’s a process. They’re still sophomores. So working toward that, that attacking culture, recognizing you have that ability, you don’t have to play so defensive anymore.”