Hawks-BHS tie goes pk for HVA
BEARDEN — It took a nine-round penalty kick shootout for Hardin Valley Academy’s boys soccer team to end nearly a decade of futility against one of its rivals. The match was technically ruled a draw, but that didn’t really matter to the Hawks.
Hardin Valley and Bearden played to a 1-1 draw in 80 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of extra time before the match was ultimately decided by penalty kicks, with the Hawks prevailing in the marathon shootout session, 7-6, at BHS’s Turner-Allender Field before a spirited crowd on a chilly Friday night, April 12.
HVA (10-1-1 overall, 3-0-1 in District 4-AAA after the match) won the shootout when Marques Powers scored, getting the ball past SoccerDawgs junior goalkeeper Logan Nelson.“I don’t usually take pks, but I knew I had to make mine,” Powers said. “Everybody else made theirs, so I knew I had to make mine.
“I didn’t want to be the one to let my team down.”
“This was an instant classic, and I’m going to tell the boys that they’ve done something that nine previous Hardin Valley teams couldn’t do, and that’s beat Bearden,” Hawks first-year head coach Ray Dover said. “This was a win, even though it went to pks — but it was a regular-season game and it wasn’t for a trophy or anything like that.”
Dominating the first 40 minutes of the match, the Hawks took a 1-0 lead when Ben Brophy, one of their leading scorers, tallied in the 18th minute.
Jack Raulston converted a penalty kick with 16:02 remaining in regulation to make it 1-1.
“They killed us in the first half,” said Bearden head coach Ryan Radcliffe, whose team was 7-2-1, 0-0-1 after the match. “I thought we played better in the second half and into overtime.”
