Special to the Maroon Devils Network – The Maroon Devils Men’s Soccer Team hosted the Blue Ridge Bobcats on Tuesday at 6:00 for Senior Night. Before the game the Devils would recognize the four Seniors and their parents. Swain Seniors this year include Jonas Trejo, Nathan Brock, Jackson Warshaw, and Aiden Pond. At the start of the game Swain was tied with Highlands for 2nd in the conference. Blue Ridge was one game back on both teams. Fourteen minutes into the game Freshman Landon Matz would find Junior João Segato with a leading pass behind the Bobcat defense and Segato would finish for a goal. 25 minutes into the half Senior Nathan Brock would find Freshman Matthew Gray with a through pass and Gray would score from 20 yards out. The Devils would go in at halftime with a 2-0 lead.
The Devils were not done in the second half. Fourteen minutes in the Devils would bring the ball from the defensive third all the way to the attacking third through passing. Matz would finish the play with a goal and Junior Chase Burrell getting the assist putting the Devils up 3-0. With five minutes left in the game Junior Zachary Cline was able to get away from being man marked for a few seconds to add a 4th goal for the Devils off a pass from Matz. With 2 minutes left in the game the Bobcat goalkeeper would punt the ball and Cline would take a touch and take a quick shot over the keepers head from 38 yards out. With 15 seconds left in the game Burrell would find Matz for the 6th goal of the game. The Devils would finish the game with the 6-0 win over the defending conference champs.
“Overall it was a well executed game. We did not know how our team would respond after the loss the day before to Hayesville.” said Head Coach Scott Cline. “We came out ready to play. Blue Ridge has a good team. They were the only conference team to beat Hayesville this year.”
On defense, Senior Aiden Pond would lead the way with 11 clears/steals, followed by Junior Chase Burrell with 9, followed by Sophomore Levi Trantham and Sophomore Gavin Lanning each with 8. In goal Junior Noel Wolf had 9 saves. The players of the game were the Seniors. “We discussed how important this game was to our Seniors. Our players really stepped it up and wanted to end the regular season in a positive way for our Seniors.” said Cline.
Swain finished the regular season in 2nd place in the conference by themselves as Hayesville beat Highlands. They are awaiting playoff seeding that is scheduled to take place on Monday. As of the latest entered stats for the conference, Freshman Landon Matz leads the conference with 13 goals followed by Juniors João Segato and Chase Burrell each with 10 and Junior Zachary Cline with 7. In assists Cline leads the conference with 10, followed by Senior Nathan Brock with 8 and Matz and Burrell each with 6. In goal Junior Noel Wolf leads the conference with 233 saves and a goals against average of .970 per game. If Defensive stats were ranked, it is likely that Senior Aiden Pond would lead the conference. Pond had a total of 155 for the regular season.