Draw
Wild second half nets draw for Farragut, HVA
HARDIN VALLEY — District 4-AAA rivals Farragut High School and Hardin Valley Academy played to a 1-1 draw Friday night at HVA and neither Admirals coach Ray Dover nor Hawks head man Mark Patterson were happy after the match.
“We needed two goals to [in the second half] to take over first place in the district and we got one of them,” Dover, Farragut’s first-year head coach, said. “We didn’t play our best.
“We didn’t play the way that we are capable of playing. We’ve got to be more patient in our attacking third of the field.”
Patterson, also a first-year head coach for the Hawks, was angry too. But his ire wasn’t directed at his players. He was disappointed in a controversial late foul call that gave the Admirals a chance to score the game-tying goal with 48.7 seconds remaining in the match.
“I’m too angry to speak,” Patterson said after Farragut’s Brad Baker converted a direct free kick in the waning moments of the contest. “I’m at a loss for words.
“I have a lot to say but I can’t say it because I don’t want to get into trouble. I will say that I am proud of our kids for their effort. Our defense was great. They really weren’t able to generate much of anything. Most of their shots came from 30 or 40 yards out and we have two great keepers and if anybody scores on us from 30 or 40 yards out, I’ll be the first person to shake their hand.”
HVA goalkeepers Jeremy Wise (who played the first half Friday night against the Admirals) and Andrew Foster always split time in the net and that formula has worked for the past two seasons. Both have made a habit of stopping shots but against Farragut, it was Foster who scored Hardin Valley’s goal.
He scored the first marker of the match when his 65-yard free kick bounced and wound up behind Farragut senior netminder Eli Lewis and in the back of the Admirals’ net.
“That’s a new one on me,” Dover said of the marker that gave the Hawks a 1-0 lead shortly after halftime. “That first goal that they scored really changed the complexion of the game.”
The goal wasn’t a surprise for Patterson.
“I talked to them at halftime and I knew that somehow, we were going to get a goal,” Patterson said. “Andrew is the kicker for our football team so he has the leg for it.
“The kid has some leg.”
Foster said that his tally culminated some hard work.
“I’ve been practicing at this year,” said Foster, who scored in the 45th minute, just five minutes after entering the match. “I’ve been working at it and I knew that I was going to score a goal this year.
“When I practiced the play, coach just kept telling me to keep the ball on target and I kicked it from about 15 yards beyond [midfield].
Lewis was shocked by Foster’s goal.
“It was just crazy,” he said. “It was a crazy shot and I didn’t have my arms down.”
Foster’s unlikely offense was nearly enough for Hardin Valley (3-4-1 overall, 1-0-1 in District 4-AAA) but Farragut (7-2-3, 3-1-1) was able to cash in on the late set piece and salvage the draw.
“I saw an opening in the wall and I shot it,” Baker said. “I knew that I was too close to get it over, so I found the opening and I kept it low.”
Like Dover, Baker said that the Admirals must be more patient in the offensive third of the field.
“We definitely need to be more patient,” he said.
