Loudon High School boys soccer defeated Greenback School 4-1 on Thursday in the District 4-1A championship game.
Though the Redskins dominated the game, the Cherokees put in a resolute defensive performance to keep the battle tight for an hour.
A lack of squad depth caused the Greenback players to tire in the final stretch, however, and Loudon took advantage to seal a fifth consecutive district title.
“It was tough,” Yoni Espinoza, LHS head boys soccer coach, said. “They came to play, they really wanted it and we were kind of half-fuel — I don’t know why. We found goals, but our gameplay was not completely there. But credit to Greenback, they came to play, so it was fun to see.”
The situation played out differently when the two teams met in the regular season. Loudon had picked Greenback apart for a 7-1 win. Big wins have been the norm for the Redskins all season long in district, with Thursday’s game their smallest scoreline of the year.
“I was super happy with my guys,” Rob Fox, head Greenback soccer coach, said. “They played extremely hard. It was a difficult challenge for us. We played Loudon earlier in the season and we didn’t do as well as we did tonight.”
Fox had reasons to fear the worst as his team conceded with barely a minute on the clock. Loudon’s Cristian Medina scored with a low shot across goal after being put through by Ronaldo Guillen.
The Cherokees did not let the setback get to them, however, and grew into the game with a strong defensive performance.
Though a 4-1-4-1 on paper, Greenback’s fullbacks tucked in narrow and wingers tracked back to form more of a 6-3-1 at times. With plenty of men behind the ball, Loudon struggled to break down the defense and had few real chances to extend the lead.
Greenback goalkeeper Isiah Flowers did well in a sweeper role to collect any through-ball attempts, while several defenders made important blocks in their area.
“They did a good job and they were very disciplined at the back, so it made it very difficult for us,” Espinoza said. “We were expecting them to hold back a little bit more, so credit to them because they played. We eventually put them back in their area, but we struggled and we knew we were going to struggle down the middle.”
Greenback showed the first signs of posing an attacking threat in the 13th minute as Paul Pifer ran down a goalkeeper drop kick to draw a foul near Loudon’s goal. The subsequent free-kick was easy for Jonathan Hernandez to collect.
Though Loudon’s attack went straight back at it, hitting a volley over the bar a minute later and seeing another attempt cleared off the line in the 18th, Greenback was the next team to score. On the counter, Pifer found space down the right flank and sent in an early cross for his brother Noah Pifer to convert at the back post.
Loudon responded eight minutes later, with Yorben Muñoz scoring off a Jorge Aguilar cross, but the Cherokees maintained a threat on the counter. With the score 2-1 at the half, both sides were still in it.
“I thought that we had a chance,” Fox said. “At halftime I felt like we had a chance to try to tie it back up again, with a little bit of luck here and there we might have been able to do that, but it just wasn’t to be.”
Greenback kept up an impressive defensive performance in the beginning of the second half and got a couple of half-chances in attack 10 minutes in, but started to show signs of tiring by the 55-minute mark. With limited options on the bench, there was little Fox could do to relieve players.
Loudon got the insurance goal on the hour mark when Giovanni Vega headed home from an Oscar Vega cross. Five minutes later, Oscar was the one on the scoresheet, beating Greenback’s defenders to all but secure victory.
Flowers continued his impressive display in goal to keep the scoreline respectable, but it was all Loudon in the final quarter of an hour. Greenback players never stopped fighting, but with a three-goal deficit and tiredness creeping in, the hurdle was too big to overcome.
“First half we felt like we had some chances, but by the second half we started to wear down a little bit and we were not able to hang in there,” Fox said. “But overall, I’m super proud of their effort. They never quit, they fought hard for 80 minutes, and that’s all I can ask of them.”
The district championship was Loudon’s fifth since 2017, with the abandoned 2020 year the only season they did not get the title in that timespan. The goal is now to return to state after missing out last season.
Loudon and Greenback played their region semifinals after News-Herald presstime against Cumberland Gap and Oneida high schools, respectively.
