–Rockets beat Rams to win inaugural Moe’s Challenge Cup
9 September 2007Story and photos by Michael Painter
SKYLAND - September 4, 2007 - When putting together a new soccer tournament, you want to do a couple of things. Get four competitive teams together in a round robin format and stretch the games out over a three week period so the teams would not have to play three days in a row.
The teams.
Polk (2006 WHC 1A/2A Champs, State 1-A Championship game),
Brevard (2006 WAC 2-A Champs, State 2-A Semi-Finals),
Roberson (2006 MAC 3-A Champs, 3-A State Semi-Finals)
Reynolds (2006 NWC 4-A Champs, 4-A State Quarter-Finals).
As most would have thought, the championship game of the first annual Moe’s Southwestern Grill Challenge Cup came down to the top two teams in Buncombe County, Reynolds and Roberson (4-3).
Whenever these two teams get together, you never know what’s going to happen. Roberson has had the upper hand in the past couple of years, but Reynolds won the last game between the two soccer juggernauts and wanted to get a little win streak of their own going.
Reynolds (5-2) scored two goals within two minutes of each other in the second half and held off a determined Rams team, who scored with 4 minutes left in the game, 2-1.
"It was a great game between two great teams," said Reynolds head coach Patrick Gladys. "Anytime you beat Roberson, it’s a great win. After last week, we needed a big win (Reynolds lost to 2-A Owen last week) and they came out and played like they are capable of playing."
There were a lot of opportunities for both to score, but the play of goalkeepers Jonathon Sorrentino for Reynolds and both Ronnie Hreha and Ryan Schmidt for Roberson kept the score low.
Sorrentino had 5 saves on the night for the Rockets and Hreha had 3 for the Rams.
"We were up to the challenge," said Sorrentino, who made a diving save in the first half to save a goal. "Once I made that save, I felt the momentum changed in our direction. It’s like we unlocked the gates and we got the two goals at the end to win."
In the 76th minute, Kye Grooms scored the Rockets first goal off of a rebound to give the Rockets their first goal of the night, giving them a 1-0 lead.
"We wanted to attack Roberson," said Grooms, who was injured on the goal, but stayed in the game. "We put a lot of pressure on them and it paid off."
Two minutes later, Simon Byrtus took a thrown-in from Ben Leahy in front of the net and blasted one past Hreha for the second goal.
"Ben made a great pass," said Byrtus. "I hit it with my left foot and got it past the goalie."
The extra goal was needed as the Rams’ Paul Engle scored with four minutes left to pull within one.
"It wasn’t our night," said the Rams Rob Wilcher. "It was a good game, back and forth. Reynolds did what they had to do and their defense was good tonight. You can’t give a team like Reynolds the opportunities we gave them. On both goals they beat us to the ball."
The loss drops Roberson to 4-3, their third straight loss. On Friday they lost to Charlotte Catholic and then lost to last years 4-A state champion, Raleigh Broughton, 6-0, on Saturday.
First round: Reynolds 2 Polk 1, Roberson 5 Brevard 1
Second round: Reynolds 5 Brevard 2, Roberson 3 Polk 0
Third Place: Brevard 4 Polk 2
Championship: Reynolds 2 Roberson 1
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