farragutpress

Soccer Dawgs maintain hope after heartbreak

May 27, 2026 by Jake Nichols

MURFREESBORO — On a rainy and disappointing afternoon for Bearden soccer, Ryan Radcliffe’s perspective cut through the clouds.

Moments after the Bulldogs lost the Class 4A state championship to Ravenwood, falling 3-1 in a tense penalty kick shootout, the Bearden head coach chose to look at the silver lining. His team just completed its 12th state championship appearance in program history, having blitzed through its 20th state tournament with a 2-0 record to reach the title game, and Radcliffe wanted to give credit where it was due.

“I think you try to keep a hindsight picture of where we got to, and the work it took to get to this point was pretty crazy,” Radcliffe said. “There are teams that don’t get here any or really good teams that haven’t been here in decades, so to get here and have the opportunity to play should be at the top of your mind, even though it stings a bit right now.”

That approach will stick with his Bearden team, though the sting may last well after their Friday, May 22, loss, too.

And how could it not, given the way it unfolded?

After a scoreless 80 minutes, two 10-minute overtime periods and a slew of penalty kicks left the Dawgs trailing 3-1, BHS needed two goals in as many tries to force a second set of PKs. Tim Styles was the natural choice for the first shot, as he scored a combined five goals against Cleveland and Franklin to lead the Dawgs into the season finale.

Only his kick sailed into the padded hands of Ravenwood keeper Connor Shave, sending Styles to the turf and the Raptors into rain-soaked pandemonium.

Well after Styles picked himself up and peeled off his jersey, Radcliffe reiterated his impact for the 2026 Bulldogs.

“He’s frustrated, but we have to turn around and have our banquet this weekend, so I think I’ll remind him we wouldn’t have been here without him,” Radcliffe said. “The boys even coined him ‘Tournament Tim’ because he’s been huge this week. He has led us. I even challenged him going into overtime and said, ‘Let’s see if you can win it for us again.’ But no, he was huge and doesn’t need to worry about the PK.”

Styles’ kick followed three makes by Ravenwood players Simon Hetrick, Bastian Swartz and Aditya Chauhan with a miss by Aiden Carothers. Chauhan’s connection set the 3-1 mark, while Bearden’s Aidan Ainsworth provided the only score in four tries for the Dawgs.

“It was their first shootout and our third this year,” Radcliffe said of the sequence. “So you wonder if you have the confidence and experience going in and whether they’d be nervous. I think, honestly, that going through so many shootouts hurt us a little bit, that we second-guessed ourselves on some shots and they didn’t. To me, a PK shootout is a coin flip, and we lost the coin flip.”

The dramatic ending provided a fitting finish to a day of hurdles for both teams.

Before kickoff, Radcliffe learned his team would be playing its season finale on the turf of Field 7 at Richard Siegel Soccer Park, rather than the grass of the stadium complex nearby.

A torrential downpour brought sheets of rain in the first half, and the weather only worsened with a lightning delay that kept the teams in their locker rooms during halftime. All the while, Radcliffe’s message remained simple: go out and win a game.

“I didn’t realize we’d go through all the adversity we had,” Radcliffe said. “Coming to Murfreesboro, playing on a turf field instead of a stadium field, the delay and constant rain, it’s a lot of adversity we had to adjust to, and I thought we did a good job of it. I thought they handled it well and told them you’re playing in a state championship game. So if you want to win it, you have to find ways to step up, and we have a lot of boys who did that.”

After the break, Bearden looked for answers in the form of Styles, Aiden Zalk and Samuel Tabarez, each of whom came achingly close to a score — yet to no avail.

“After the delay and halftime, I thought we executed well and had moments to break the deadlock,” Radcliffe said. “We were hopeful that we could get something in to take the wind out of their sails, and I thought both teams had chances. Just didn’t fall for us the right way.”

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, that theme continued through the rest of the day.

And by the time Radcliffe gathered his players in the muddy grass to regroup, he appreciated two aspects equally: his team’s ability to reach this point and the emotions from players who clearly wanted a different result.

“Bearden is supposed to be here, and we love this moment,” he reflected. “A lot of teams would be celebrating this a little bit bigger, and we’re very thankful for where we are. But I love the part that they want more in the drive to want to win a state championship. That excites me as a coach.”

“And you have to remind them it’s not easy to get here. It’s not easy to get out of districts or regions. So losing in PKs, you have to let it sink in of where you got to and how difficult it was, because that’s a feat in itself. I think someone said we’re both top five in the country right now, so losing to a top-five team in PKs isn’t something to be upset about — even though it will take some time to realize that.”