Back to winning, defending state champ Dawgs roll
KNOXVILLE — Despite seeing his team snap its two-game losing streak Monday night, April 12, Bearden High School boys soccer head coach Ryan Radcliffe still found areas needing improvement.
“We have to clean up our execution,” Radcliffe said after BHS notched a 6-1 victory versus Knoxville Central at Turner-Allender Field. “I was glad to see some balls finally find their way into the back of the net, but we still need to clean some things up.
“We’ve had a brutal schedule. We’ve played nine games and nothing has come easy for us,” he added. “Central has a good team, and they were undefeated coming in here (now 5-1-1).”
Bearden (6-3), which had lost its last two matches to Webb School of Knoxville and Chattanooga McCallie, were locked in a scoreless draw Monday until Lucas Nordin beat Central senior goalkeeper In Mendenhall in the 28th minute.
“We were scoreless against a team that could pop out and be the best team in the state, and I’ll take that all day long,” Central head coach Chris Quinn said. “But we made some mistakes and weren’t doing everything that we wanted to do.”
The Bulldogs extended their advantage to 2-0 when Levi Brady took a pass from Nordin and scored.
Bearden took a 3-0 lead in the 47th minute on a marker by Cameron Cook before Ethan Ford scored back-to-back goals in the 48th and 49th minutes respectively.
The Bobcats got on the board when Taylor Aaron, their top scorer, tallied in the 50th minute.
BHS freshman Dillon Sims closed out the scoring in the 79th minute of the match.
