Waynesville (Special to the Maroon Devils Network) – The Maroon Devil Men’s Soccer Team traveled to 3A Tuscola on Wednesday night to take on the Tuscola Mountaineers. The last time the two teams met the Mountaineers mercy ruled the Devils early in the second half. The Devils had a sluggish start to the game allowing two quick goals early in the first half. One goal four minutes in off a corner kick and another one six minutes in off a long ball to a player behind the defensive line. After the first two goals the Devils tightened up and played solid soccer for the rest of the first half. The score would remain 2-0 through halftime.
In the second half the Mountaineers would score once more 18 minutes in. The Devils would finally get on the board with Junior Chase Burrell scoring a goal. The Devils would keep the pressure up in the second half, but just could not convert anymore goals. The Mountaineers would secure the 3-1 win. “Tuscola has a really good team. It took us a while to adjust to the tempo of the game.” said Coach Scott Cline. “Overall I feel okay with how we played against them. The game definitely showed us what we needed to improve on.”
In the game on defense, Senior Aiden Pond would lead the way with 4 Clears/Steals, followed by Senior Jonas Trejo, Sophomore Travis Franklin and Freshman Matthew Gray each with 2. In goal Junior Noel Wolf had 17 Saves.
The player of the game for the Devils was Sophomore Gavin Lanning. “Gavin came in off the bench and added a spark that we needed in this game.” said Cline. “His energy level picked up our tempo and the level of play for our team.” The Devils will play their next game on Wednesday at 4:30 at Carolina Day School in Asheville.