Tuscola soccer draws against North Henderson, picks up clutch victory at East Henderson
Sep. 24—The Mountaineers followed up a two-loss week with strong showings against North Henderson and East Henderson this week to improve to 4-4-1 overall and 1-1-1 in Mountain Seven conference play.
"We got a tie against what I still say is the number one team and then we ended up getting our first conference win, which is a good confidence builder, even though some of our better players were out and others were not having their best game because they didn't feel well," Tuscola head coach Ray Sugg said. "That's just one of those gut checks where you have to dig deep. I was proud of them."
On Monday, Tuscola battled to a 2-2 draw with conference powerhouse North Henderson at C. E. Weatherby Stadium in Waynesville. The Knights are currently tied for first in the Mountain Seven with a 2-0-1 record. The match got heated as several North Henderson fans were escorted out and two Knights drew red cards and were ejected, Sugg said.
Mountaineers' sophomore Sean Fitzgerald scored the first goal of the match on a penalty kick to give Tuscola a 1-0 advantage. The Knights scored the next two to take a 2-1 lead of their own.
Tuscola junior Ben Mehaffey notched the equalizer in the second half after getting past one of the top defenders in the conference who plays on the same travel team as Mehaffey, Sugg said.
Even though North Henderson was down two players because of the red cards by the overtime period, their talent kept Tuscola from scoring the game winner. But Sugg was pleased and proud of his team for playing such a competitive match and coming away with the draw to earn a point in the conference standings.
The Mountaineers followed that performance up by hitting the road for a matchup with East Henderson and coming away with an exciting 2-1 overtime victory.
Senior forward Felippe Portale scored Tuscola's first goal of the match for the Mountaineers. Sugg said senior goalkeeper Luke Wilson, a team captain, had his best match of the season, finishing with 14 saves. Mehaffey came up with his second clutch goal of the week, finding the back of the net for the game winner shortly into the first overtime period.
"Ben has one player to beat and when he dribbles by that guy, he looks up and sees that the keeper is off the line," Sugg said. "So he shot it over the keeper's head and into the goal, and it was about a four-yard shot, this was a long shot."
Sugg said several of his team's top players weren't feeling 100% in the match and asked to come off the field, but the Mountaineers adjusted, weathering the storm long enough to come up with the win and two points toward the conference standings.
"After that first 20 minutes, I didn't have all the starters on the field together again, so that was a huge factor in this," Sugg said.
Next week, Tuscola will look to pick up bragging rights as well as their second conference victory of the season when rival Pisgah makes the trip to Waynesville on Monday. The match is set to start at 6 p.m. at Weatherby.
"We know, because of the rivalry, that we will get their best game," Sugg said. "The biggest push for me is that we stick to the game plan."
