Special to the Maroon Devils Network – The Maroon Devils Men’s Soccer Team traveled to the Murphy Bulldogs on Wednesday for a rematch of an early season match-up where the Devils won. The Devils got off to a rocky start as they had a handball in the box just 5 minutes into the game. This gave the Bulldogs a penalty kick that they scored on. Just four minutes later the Devils committed a foul in the box. The Bulldogs would convert the penalty kick putting them up 2-0 over the Devils just eight minutes into the game.
The Devils would start to dig themselves out of the hole they had put themselves in six minutes later when Senior Nate Brock would find Junior João Segato for a goal. With 8 minutes left in the half Junior Chase Burrell would feed the ball to Freshman Landon Matz for the second goal of the game for the Devils. With 30 seconds left in the half Freshman Matthew Gray would cross the ball to Matz, who would back heel the ball to Sophomore Gavin Lanning for the goal that put the Devils up 3-2 going into halftime.
With four minutes left in the game Burrell would send a long ball ahead to Brock who would then lay the ball off to Matz for the goal. The game would finish with the Devils taking a 4-2 win. “Overall I was proud of the boys for not dropping their heads after we were down 2-0.” said Head Coach Scott Cline. “They showed a lot of resilience in the game. They knew how important the game was.”
On defense Senior Aiden Pond led the way with 11 Clears/Steals, followed by Senior Nathan Brock with 6, and Senior Jonas Trejo and Junior Chase Burrell with 5 each. In goal Junior Noel Wolf had 2 Saves. The Player of the Game for the Devils was Senior Aiden Pond. “Aiden really stepped it up defensively and saved us numerous times.” said Cline.
The Devils improve to 6-2 in the conference and 9-7-3 overall. Their next match-up will be the biggest game of the season up to this point. The Devils will play the Hayesville Yellow Jackets who are currently number 1 in the conference. The Devils are one game back sitting in second place. If the Yellow Jackets win on Thursday night against Cherokee, they will be coming into the game with a 6 game winning streak and the Devils will be coming in with a 5 game winning streak. The game will take place on Monday night at Swain Memorial Stadium at 6:00. Come out and support your Maroon Devils on Monday for this very important game!