Oct. 24, 2012 — In basketball, the term, ‘sometimes you just can’t buy a bucket’, refers to a team being unable to find the bottom of the net.
This saying could be applied to the East Carter Raiders soccer team, who could not find the back of the net as it suffered a season-ending loss to Boyd County, 2-0, last Thursday night in the second round of the 16th Region Tournament in Grayson.
Despite several opportunities to score throughout the night, including several shots by Elijah Green, Quinn Huddle and Tucker Carper, the Raiders fell victim to an extremely physical Boyd County defense.
East Carter Head Coach Ben Fritz talked about the brooding, physical play of Boyd County and how it affected his team.
“Boyd County really likes to put the pressure on,” Fritz said. “After playing them once before, we knew what to expect. We just couldn’t find a way to score tonight.”
Boyd County keeper Jaz Stephenson halted the opportunities East Carter continued to deliver throughout the entire 80 minutes of play.
On the Lions’ side, the Raiders strong defensive effort could not prevent two scores from occurring.
Despite several impressive saves by senior keeper Trenton Wels, goals in each half by Jonah Black and Jordan Smith were the keys to the grinded out victory for Boyd, sealing the victory for Canonsburg’s team.
“I thought we played really well especially in the second half,” Fritz said. “We seemed to do everything right, except for finishing the ball. Really proud of the way my guys competed and never quit.”
The 2012 soccer Raiders had double-digit goal scorers in the form of three of its 11 seniors, with Carper, Huddle and Green.
Fritz said it will not be easy replacing his seniors, and not just because of their presence on the field.
“We will not be able to replace them, but instead, we will just try to manage without them,” Fritz said. “When you see a group like this one leaving your program, it’s obviously a pretty big blow. We not only lost great players, but great people.”
East Carter boys soccer finished with a 10-5-2 record.
Grant Stevens can be reached at gstevens@journal-times.com or by telephone at 1-800-247-6142.
