Admirals defense not enough
Admirals 1
Red Rebels 5
MARYVILLE — Dennis Lindsay said Farragut’s “open door policy on defense in the first two minutes” against Maryville was, to the best of his memory, unprecedented in his 26 years as Admirals girls soccer head coach.
With two FHS defensive breakdowns resulting in a pair of Red Rebels goals in the first 90 seconds of the game, “I don’t ever remember having a team do that,” Lindsay said following a 5-1 loss at John Sevier Elementary School field Wednesday evening, Aug. 31. “Those two goals at the beginning of the game took us out of the game.”
A failed defensive clear in the 18-yard box resulted in the first Maryville goal, roughly 10 yards out, from Preston Robinette less than one minute into the match.
Only a few seconds later, Emma Rice beat the Admirals defense toward the goal and beat charging FHS goalkeeper Morgan Carbaugh to the ball, resulting in a Red Rebels goal from about 12 yards out.
“I think we had a breakdown pretty early. We just got disorganized and had a hard time recovering from it,” Amy Cloud, Farragut sophomore midfielder, said.
“I think we were caught off guard. We were disorganized with the first two goals for sure,” Morgan Records, FHS senior defender, said. “And our mindset wasn’t in it, after the goals, where it should be.”
“It certainly surprised us,” said MHS head coach Steve Feather, whose team improved to 5-1-1 after the win.
Ironically, the Admirals [3-1-3 after the loss] ended up with a 16-10 shots-on-goal edge according to Maryville statistics [official]. Farragut stats showed a 17-10 FHS advantage.
After the early Rebels goals, “We thought Farragut had the run of play for the rest of the half,” Feather said.
The Admirals did rally, keeping MHS off the scoreboard for more than 53 minutes while cutting the lead to 2-1. Cloud’s shot from about 25 yard out on the right side was mishandled by Maryville goalkeeper Allie Hendrix, sneaking past the goal-line in the 37th minute.
“It wasn’t the greatest shot I’ve ever had, but thankfully [teammate] Erin VanHoozier was there just in case anything happened,” Cloud said.
A wide-open chance to tie near the mouth of the goal, in the final minute of the first half, was missed when a header went high.
A long but well-placed shot from FHS junior Megan MacLean didn’t provide a goal thanks to a diving save from Hendrix, coming in the final seconds of the half.
“In spurts there were several of them who played decent, but they weren’t together,” Lindsay said. “… We just didn’t play our normal game. I’ll have to give [Maryville] credit for that.
“But will still had our opportunities.”
Abby Kolarik’s 40-yard free kick sailed too high for Carbaugh to stop, yet got under the crossbar for a 3-1 Maryville lead in the 55th minute.
With Farragut preparing for a free kick in the 67th minute, a shot of thunder caused a 30-minute delay.
Maryville added two late goals.
About the delay possibly affecting her Admirals, Records said, “That shouldn’t be an excuse. I don’t think the delay had anything to do with it.”
Kolarik nailed her second goal with a shot on the right side, at a sharp angle, from about 25 yards out making it 4-1 in the 72nd minute.
Jade Seery beat a Farragut defender one-on-one and scored from about 10 yards out in the 77th minute.
“The score wouldn’t have been so bad except we were losing and I gambled,” Lindsay said.
“It was a much more even game than 5-1,” Feather said. “… In my opinion this was two even teams.”
