Region soccer champ Hawks joined by Dawgs at state; faced each other in quarters
HARDIN VALLEY — With all the scoring, once again, coming from senior forward Ben Brophy, Hardin Valley Academy built on its 2-1 Region 2-AAA title victory at Bearden — unlike last season — and earned a Division I-AAA state berth in Murfreesboro this week after edging a tough Sevier County team 2-1 in Sectional play at HVA Saturday evening, May 17.
With the BHS SoccerDawgs crushing Jefferson County 8-0 at JCHS in the other area Sectional, Bearden (18-2-1) will join the Hawks (16-3-3) at state. In fact, the pair played each other in the quarterfinals Tuesday, May 20 (after deadline) — thanks to a new seeding system that doesn’t exclude playing a team from your own district in the opening round.
About his first goal, coming in the eighth-minute, “Frank (Manrod), he just played it perfectly over to Ali (Tarchane on the left side), and he just rocketed it there and it just connected with my foot and just went in the corner” of the net, said Brophy, a Maryville College signee who also scored both goals in the region title win at BHS. “It was just a great team play overall.”
About his second goal, coming with just 2:05 left in the first half after the Smoky Bears (13-4-2) tied the match in the 29th minute, “The ball got deflected to Cam (Wolfe), and he beautifully flicked it, and I was one-on-one with the keeper,” added Brophy, whose 77 career goals are just two short of the school record. “It was another great pass.”
About losing to Science Hill at home in last year’s Sectional after beating Bearden to win region, Nathan Holbrook, Hawks senior forward and a team captain, said about 2024, “What we learned was last year, we came out of that Bearden game thinking we won it all. This year, we knew the job wasn’t done. We cared about winning region, but our biggest thing was winning state.
“I think this is the best we’ve been playing,” Holbrook added.
“I think the guys learned from last year, and what we talked about before the game was like, ‘We’ve waited 365 days for this moment, so let’s make sure that we don’t come out on the wrong end of it,’” HVA head coach Ray Dover said.
“They do such a good job off the ball, just moving and staying so active,” Tim Bohanan, SCHS head coach, said about the Hawks.
