Murphy – It was a busy week for Cherokee County’s boys soccer teams.
To kick off the week, Tri-County Early College (1-4-1) defeated Cherokee 8-2 for the first win in program history. Andrews (0-2-1) kicked off its season with a trip to Highlands, where they lost 7-1. Meanwhile, Murphy (3-6) took on rivals Swain County at home and lost 1-0.
Later in the week, Murphy traveled to Cherokee, where the Bulldogs got their first Smoky Mountain Conference victory 9-0 on Sept. 11. Jerry Bui led the team with three goals. Tyler Payne, Elijah Twiggs and Nathan Johnson had two goals each, while Twiggs had two assists and Payne and Johnson one each.
The same day, The Jaguars and Wildcats met for the first meeting between county rivals this season. The match was a cat fight that went to extra time and ended in a 4-4 draw.
Elias Diaz-Menchu got the scoring going with a goal on a free kick 15 minutes into the match. About 13 minutes later, Andrews’ Eric Zapet tied it up on a penalty kick. The match would remained tied 1-1 until Andrews broke the scoring wide open in the second half.
Just over 15 minutes into the second half, Zapet got his second goal of the match. Two minutes later, Sebastion Jiminez scored to give Andrews a 3-1 lead. However, with less than 10 minutes left, Andrew White of Tri-County got his first goal of the night to bring them within one.
Less than a minute later, Zapet scored his third of the night to make it a 4-2 lead for Andrews for what the Wildcats thought would put the game out of reach. Less than a minute after Andrews took a two-goal lead, White scored again for Tri-County to put them within one.
For the final seven minutes of the match, Tri-County tried to get the equalizer, while Andrews tried to protect its one-goal lead. With 58.1 seconds left, White scored his hat-trick goal to tie the game. Neither team scored in the final 58 seconds, so the teams headed to overtime.
It was back and forth in the two 10-minute half overtime periods, with both teams having scoring chances. Despite pushing hard at the end, the match ended in a 4-4 draw.
For Tri-County, White had three goals, Diaz-Menchu had one goal and an assist, and Landen Spies had two assists. Goalkeeper Julian Arvizu had 12 saves on 16 shots.
“I was very happy when they could have folded after going down two goals and they hung in there and got a goal and they got down again two goals and they kept fighting and kept fight ing and I’m really proud of them for that,” Tri-County head coach Chris Blanton said. “They started getting a rhythm there at the end of the second half, and I was very pleased with that.”
Blanton said his player of the match was White for his three goals, which helped them stay in the match and force overtime. He also said William Boyd played well.
Looking back at their first win in program history against Cherokee on Sept. 9, Blanton said, “It felt great. The boys were so excited. After all the overtime losses last year, they were so close last year so many, many times, and to finally break through and get that first win, I think it’s going to lead to some more things down the road that will be special for us.”
“I think they did well,” Andrews head coach James Vaught said. “There’s a lot of stuff they can improve on, but they did a lot of good passing, a lot of good effort and they really worked as a team.”
Today, Murphy is hosting Highlands at 6 p.m. at David Gentry Field at Murphy High School. At 4 p.m., Tri-County is heading to Cashiers to take on Blue Ridge Early College. Also at 4 p.m. today, Andrews is hosting Cherokee.
On Monday, Murphy will head to Hayesville at 4 p.m. Tri-County will host Highlands and Andrews will host Blue Ridge Early College at 6 p.m. All three teams will look to get conference wins with a month left.