Undermanned Dawgs outlast Ads
The rivals wrote their latest chapter on Friday, April 24. And when the clock hit zero, all the Farragut coach could do was tip his cap to the Bulldogs, who claimed a 3-1 victory despite being outnumbered during several key stretches.
“What a transition by them to be down two men and still put that effort in,” Culbreath acknowledged. “I commend them on how they played the last 20 minutes. Everybody hopes and wishes for a team that responds like that. Hopefully mine learn, which we will. When you make mistakes, good teams capitalize on it. They earned it, and (Bearden coach Ryan) Radcliffe made adjustments. Over there playing chess, as expected.”
The result leaves Farragut as the 2-seed or the 3-seed for the district tournament, depending on the West-Bearden game that took place after press time on Tuesday, April 28.
As for last Friday, Bearden made the first move when Ben Mowery scored his first varsity goal to put the Bulldogs ahead 1-0 going into halftime.
At that point, Culbreth’s club did not panic — far from it, in fact.
“First half, we gave them the freedom we wanted to find matchups and drag them into the second half,” Culbreth said. “Down 1, I told them we’re not in a bad situation. One opportunity changes it.”
Farragut found that opportunity soon enough, as Tyden Sanchez nailed a penalty kick to knot the score at 1 apiece.
But Bearden’s Fadel Hamdan answered with a PK of his own in the second half, putting the Dawgs ahead 2-1 in a lead they would not relinquish.
With time dwindling, Timothy Styles found the back of the net on an assist from Aidan Ainsworth to mark the final margin.
Both of these goals followed early cards for Bearden, as Samuel Tabarez left the game with a red card in the first half before Matthew Wells was issued two yellow cards.
Their absences left Bearden down one player for 46 minutes and 19 seconds Friday and down two players for the final 10:46.
Both players will also miss time this week as a result — Tabarez for three games, Wells for one.
“A little frustrating since we still have West and Maryville next week, but trying to see the bigger picture,” Radcliffe said. “We were able to find some resiliency. As a unit, we took a big step tonight, because that was some big adversity we had to deal with. I told them at halftime the only way we would be able to win would be together.“
Thus, the chess match ratcheted up a notch or two.
Radcliffe moved some pieces around to account for the absences, focusing heavily on his forwards.
The moves paid off when Styles splashed the final shot into the net.
“We kind of shifted our formation, obviously being down some players, and put a lot of focus on our forwards having to work both sides of the ball, Radcliffe said. “We talked about not giving it up easily, helping us generate some attack, and Aidan Ainsworth was fantastic in being able to keep the ball. Then Tim’s energy to join the attack and very unselfish by Aidan to play that ball across. Playing together, that was cool to see. This will be a game I think I’ll remember for a long, long time.”
Meanwhile, Culbreth gave credit to his counterparts, citing his lack of aggressiveness in the waning moments.
“He rested at the right moments when I didn’t push,” Culbreth said of Radcliffe. “I was conservative, and he got to rest his horses. I thought it would still come and it just didn’t, so I should have been more aggressive. Well-played by Radcliffe, he out-coached me. We will learn from it and get better.”
