MARYVILLE – Maryville has picked the perfect time to play its best soccer of the season.
The Scots made it three wins in a row Wednesday night, taking a 3-1 victory over LaGrange in the Collegiate Conference of the South Men's Soccer Tournament quarterfinals. Maryville is 4-1-1 over its last six matches and the Scots advance to the league tourney semifinals for the 10th time in the last 11 full seasons.
Maryville plays Saturday at top-seeded Covenant in a 2 p.m. start.
First-year Scots
Ethan Denney and
Brady Hammer scored in the opening half for a 2-0 lead at intermission. After LaGrange pulled one back in the 59th minute,
Ben Slay scored in the 73rd minute to settle things for the home side.
Slay is a sophomore but missed all last season, so he is also playing in his first collegiate campaign.
"The goals were fantastic," Maryville head coach
Pepe Fernandez said. "Brady, the freshman of the year in the conference, showed up. Ethan is another freshman; his goal was fantastic. And Ben is a redshirt freshman – didn't play last year – so three freshmen scoring goals.
"That's happened a few times for us this year and I'm just so happy for them."
Panthers Played Tough
LaGrange lost 3-0 to Maryville on this same field back on Oct. 5. That match got the Scots started on their current six-game run. But the Panthers on this night were itching to pull the upset.
"You know, they played us tough, and they did it all year long," Fernandez said. "They had some down games and some up games and that's what we talked about. They were either really good or they had some struggles, and their coach would tell you that.
"But they played well, especially in the second half. And this was one of those games too, you pick up a red card, the other team does, and sometimes the team with the red card plays better."
The straight red card to LaGrange's Satchel Hart came in the 64th minute, just five minutes after the Panthers had scored. LaGrange went on to compile a 22-14 advantage in shots (11-7 both halves) and an 8-2 edge in corner kicks.
Maryville's
Christian Alcaraz was forced to make nine saves.
Keeper's Second Assist of Season
Alcaraz got the scoring started via his second assist of the season – both against LaGrange! The junior goalkeeper booted the ball downfield to a streaking Denney, who sized up his shot from 15 yards away for a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute.
Hammer was named CCS Rookie of the Year earlier Wednesday and celebrated with his sixth goal of the season and second this year against the Panthers.
Craig McIlwraith fed Hammer down the left flank and the first-year forward scored despite an acute angle from inside the penalty area.
After LaGrange pulled within 2-1,
Hayden Tate fed a beautiful through ball to Slay in stride. The Georgia forward did not miss from 15 yards out for his second goal of the season.
"We showed a lot of character," Fernandez said. "For Ben to come off the bench and score the goal to put the match away was fantastic."
The Scots improved to 7-8-3, or miles from when they were 3-7-2 after an Oct. 1 loss at Rhodes. Maryville that afternoon lost its seventh match in the last eight, including five in a row.
From Losing to Winning
"We probably had the one of the toughest five-game stretches ever," Fernandez said. "We had all those injuries, but now we're playing so well in the month of October. That's pretty great – especially where we were with the team and the injuries."
Now it is on to the CCS tournament semifinals for a third consecutive season. Maryville played Covenant to a 1-1 draw just two weeks ago.
"We're excited; we're going to go down there with the intention to win," Fernandez said. "It's tournament time. Covenant's got a fantastic team, probably the best offensive team in the conference. And they will have the place rocking. They get great crowds.
"We need to go down there and enjoy it and just play some really good soccer. Tonight, we dug our heels in, so we need to play a little different game down there and take care of the ball a little better. Should be a fun Saturday."
