–Falcons beat East Henderson to remain in the mix for playoffs
18 October 2007By Michael Painter
MILLS RIVER - October 17, 2007 - Mitch Justus led the way for West Henderson, scoring a goal and an assist, in helping the Falcons to a 3-0 win over crosstown rival, the Eagles from East Henderson. Corey Obermiller was also outstanding in goal as he stopped two hard shots late in the game to preserve the win on Senior Night.
With the possibility of losing ground in the race for the playoffs, the West Henderson soccer team can’t afford to lose any games. With only three seeds coming out of the WAC, the Falcons are third in the conference behind Brevard and Smoky Mt. and tied with North Henderson.
They play the Mustangs on Monday and North Henderson on Wednesday and need to win out to assure themselves of that 3rd seed. They also have the tie-breaker with North, having beat them earlier in the year.
"It feels good to win," said Justus, who leads the team in scoring. "A loss would have put us out of third."
West (12-6-2/4-4) has 11 seniors on the team, but the one who got the loudest ovation was Zach Curry, who had a major knee injury earlier this year and hasn’t played since. He came out on the field and was actually able to take the ball down toward the goalie.
"The first goal we scored was with our seniors on the field," said West’s skipper, Brian Brewer. "It was very special to me as they were the first group of boys who were freshmen when I came here. I was happy with the job they did tonight."
West outshot the Eagles, 22-8.
Justus got the first score 14 minutes into the match with an unassisted goal. He avoided East goalie, Chas Branson, who came charging out from in front of the goal. Justus got around him and blasted it into the net.
"That first goal relaxed us," said Brewer. "but the second goal gave us breathing room."
That second goal came in the 39th minute. Justus had a kick that he got to Britain Donahue, who passed it to David McMullen who put it in for the score, allowing the Falcons to take a 2-0 lead into the break.
Obermiller finished the night with five saves, with two coming in the last eight minutes of the contest. With 7:50 to go, East senior Jose Gutierrez had a direct free kick that Obermiller got to knock it away and with 15 seconds left, he had an ESPN Top 5 type save when he deflected the ball from another direct free kick from 25 yards out with a big stretch toward the ball.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game," said Obermiller. "We had to get the win to get a keep our chance to go to the playoffs alive.
Just five minutes into the second half, Donahue hit one in from 25 yards, but it was disallowed.
In the 66th minute, Patrick Miller, the only freshman on the squad, scored an unassisted goal from the right side.
East’s (3-12/2-6) head coach Tate McQueen had praise for his troops after the loss.
"There’s two ways we measure success at East," offered McQueen. "#1 is playing in November and #2 is how the kids manage and handle adversity. We needed to have a win tonight to have an outside chance of getting into the playoffs. We didn’t get the win, but I was pleased with the class of our players. We kept battling back and never gave up."
East plays Monday at home against Pisgah.
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