March 20, 2018
By: Dwayne Page
The DCHS Men’s Soccer Team played in the Smoky Mountain Cup soccer tournament in Gatlinburg last weekend. The varsity team opened up with a strong victory against Rockwood High School beating the Rockwood Tigers 3-0. Cristobal Flores started the scoring with a goal in the 5th minute assisted by right defensive back, Bill Miller. The Tigers continued to pepper the Rockwood goalie, Thomas Lilly, with shots, but didn’t break through until the 20th minute with a goal from Ealy Gassaway coming in from his left wing. Ealy’s goal was assisted by center forward Cristobal Flores on a perfectly timed through ball. The first half ended 2-0 in favor of the DeKalb Tigers. Early in the second half, Cristobal Flores tallied his second for the game with an unassisted goal in the 43rd minute. That wrapped up the scoring for the night, but the DeKalb Tigers continued to dominate possession and racked up 30 shots on the night. Goalkeeper Wesley Carpenter barely touched the ball for DeKalb with only 4 saves in the match.
The dominance continued the Tigers’ second match with an 8-0 victory over the Heritage High School Mountaineers. Alan Munoz started the scoring off in the match by making an overlapping run from his central midfield position assisted by Cristobal Flores. Alan went on to score again later in the match with an unassisted goal. Cristobal would go on a record tying run with five goals. Four of the goals were unassisted and the fifth was assisted by central midfielder Jasper Kleparek. The scoring was wrapped up with a goal by central midfielder Roberto Sanchez, also assisted by Cristobal Flores. Wesley Carpenter was tested a little more in this match with 13 saves, some of which were spectacular.
The third varsity match was quite a bit more challenging as the Tigers faced the King’s Academy Lion’s in a 3-1 loss. The Tigers opened the scoring with a goal by right wing Luke Bryant in the 9th minute. Struggling to maintain possession against a strong Lions team the Tigers only managed 9 shots on the day, while goalkeeper Wesley Carpenter had to make 12 saves. In the end, the Tigers came up short with the Lions scoring two goals on penalty kicks and one in the run of play.
The Tigers’ JV also got to play three matches with a 4-1 loss to Cookeville, a 3-1 win over Heritage High School, and a 2-1 loss to Fairview High School.
“Overall the tournament was a success with our JV really improving throughout the weekend, getting a lot of quality time. Our varsity team showed there relentless nature and pushed themselves to play at a level that we can be proud to call DeKalb County Soccer.” Coach K
“Cristobal Flores’s five goal performance against Heritage ties a previously shared record between Ricardo Gutierrez and Zach Wilbur.”
(Team photo ABOVE)
Back roll left to right:
Cesar Coronilla, Andrew Fuson, Luke Bryant, Will Stephens, Ethan Jenkins, Parker Gassaway, Luke Jenkins, Wesley Carpenter, Juan Oliva.
Middle roll left to right:
Bill Miller, Rodrigo Sosa, Dylan Easterwood, Tristan McDerman, Ealy Gassaway, Jack Famulski.
Front roll left to right:
Brian Balderas, Alex Colwell-Avina, Daniel Munoz, Brandon Matias, Carlos Garcia, Alan Munoz, Pablo Juarez, Roberto Sanchez, Jasper Kleparek, Eil Judkins