Bearden season ends in state semis
Yet for this season’s Lady Bulldogs, that was far from the case.
Gone were program mainstays Jayla Blue (Tennessee), Tyler Roth (Western Kentucky) and Emma Rainey (Carson-Newman).
Throw in the loss of longtime keeper Sophie Keener and center back Cadence Nesbitt to ACL injuries, and the Soccer Dawgs really did start fresher than they might have liked.
But even with a new crop of Bearden players — including plenty of freshmen — the Dawgs scratched and clawed their way to the team’s 14th state tournament appearance in program history.
Along the way, they enjoyed several clutch finishes led by senior newcomer and Webb transfer Landree Horner. Then there were contributions from freshmen such as Fallyn Baker in the net and Reese Underwood in the midfield.
That youthful trend continued in the state quarterfinals, as BHS bounced back from a 1-0 deficit to defeat Ravenwood 2-1 with goals from sophomore Hannah Nye and freshman Myranda Lima.
But it drew to a close one round later, as BHS ran into a buzzsaw in eventual state champion Houston for a 5-0 loss.
With the result, Bearden’s season ended at 17-4-1 with district, regional and sectional titles to go with the program’s seventh-straight state tournament appearance.
“You look at what we lost in three All-State players, two potential All-Americans with Jayla and Tyler, and Emma with her production defensively. And then lost two starters in Sophie and Cadence, so the five top players, to still get back there and just get out of Knoxville is a huge credit to this group and their mentality of not expecting anything less than what’s expected from Bearden soccer,” head coach Ryan Radcliffe said.
“There was a lot of disappointment. It’s kind of weird, especially on the girls side, to not be in a championship game; that was tough on them.
“But I hope they know what they accomplished this year. I told them to think about the teams who wished they were even at this point, so give yourself credit for making it there again.”
Radcliffe did note that his team had “a tough path” to the championship game, “but if we do some things in the regular season we probably end up as a 2 or 3 seed instead of the 4,” he said. “You want them to be hungry and expect to be there. But at the same time, be proud of what you’ve accomplished.”
As far as next season is concerned, Radcliffe hopes his returners remember this feeling.
“It makes you excited about the future,” he said. “What we gained was a lot of experience for players who haven’t been in that environment before. It makes you eager to come back next year and get this group going. They were sour with how it ended and you want them to be frustrated by it.”
