Pisgah soccer fights for first
Oct. 7—The Pisgah boys soccer team is 5-1-1 in conference games and currently sits in second place in the Mountain 7 3A Conference, according to Maxpreps.com.
"We're feeling pretty good," said head coach Rodney Alt. "We feel like we're in a good spot and when you plan the season out, you want your team to peak at the right time and I'm hoping for that. We find ourselves in a conference championship run, which I'm really pleased with."
Following their shutout wins over West Henderson and Tuscola, which The Mountaineer recapped in last weekend's edition, the Black Bears beat East Henderson 2-0, tied North Henderson 1-1 and bested Smoky Mountain 4-1.
Pisgah shuts out East
Pisgah shutout East Henderson 2-0 on Wednesday, Sept. 28, in East Flat Rock.
The Eagles are 7-7-1 (2-5 in Mountain 7) and are ranked fifth in the conference.
Senior Julian Gamez and sophomore Andrew Hardin scored goals in the win. Sophomore goalkeeper Dominick Messer recorded five saves.
"We came out a little slower than we wanted to," Alt said. "It was 0-0 at halftime, then we were pretty assertive in the second half. It's tough winning on the road over there."
Bears tie North
The Bears followed that up with their second tie of the season, a 1-1 draw against North Henderson on Monday, Oct. 3, in Hendersonville.
The match went into double overtime.
"We were pretty evenly matched with them. They're the defending conference champions for two years in a row. We had to go in and earn it and take it from them," Alt said. "We were out-sized defensively. We weren't able to penetrate them much up top. We still hung in there and played well."
The Knights are 5-4-5 (4-1-2 in Mountain 7) and are in third place overall.
Senior Jon Gamez scored the lone Pisgah goal, although the Bears had 12 shots on goal in the game.
Messer recorded 10 saves.
Pisgah dominates Smoky
Finally, Pisgah dominated Smoky Mountain with a 4-1 victory on Wednesday, Oct. 5.
The Mustangs are 4-5-5 (1-4-2 in Mountain 7) and in sixth place in the conference.
"We played really well. We talked about being assertive in the first half and getting the early lead. We had a 3-0 lead at halftime and our passing was really good. We were too quick for them to handle. Things were clicking really well. It was a good feeling to get that victory," Alt said.
Season stats
Hardin is the leading scorer for Pisgah (10 goals), while junior Carlos Hinojosa is second with six and Gamez is third with four.
Multiple players are tied for the team lead with three assists.
Gamez leads the team with 28 steals and junior Evan Byrd is second with 27.
From his goalkeeper's position, Messer has recorded 76 saves
What's next?
Pisgah has five games — all against conference foes — in the season.
The Bears get a chance to avenge their loss against Franklin on Wednesday, Oct. 12.
Pisgah has beaten every team it faces after Franklin, with the exception of North Henderson (who it tied) — West Henderson, Tuscola and East Henderson.
With a 5-1-1 record in the Mountain 7, Pisgah is in second place behind Franklin, who has the same record. However, the Panthers beat the Bears 2-1 on Sept. 19, Pisgah's only season loss so far.
Alt said the fight for the top is new for his team, but not surprising.
"I think we've known it in our bones that we could do it, but now it's becoming a reality," he said.
The last winning season Pisgah boys soccer had was in 2004. With only five games left and a 10-1-1 overall record, that streak is about to be broken.
Alt said his players showed up as freshmen with the intent to turn the program around.
"The special thing about them is that they came here with that intention and purpose and they had the focus," he said.
