ECS stops St. George’s in soccer
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Most any soccer coach would be happy after watching his team score five goals and beat a fierce rival.
But instead of celebrating Thursday night, ECS coach Jordan Thompson was pondering his team’s performance after a 5-2 road victory against injury-riddled St. George’s.
“It’s a win and we’ll take it,” Thompson said. “But I’m not pleased at all. They finished better than we did. We had over 30 shots and scored five goals and they had what, four shots and scored two?
“I don’t want to sound all negative and we possessed the ball well. And we missed by inches a few times. But moving forward, those differences can mean the difference between losing to a good team or losing a state championship.
“I have high expectations for this group. We play Bartlett (Friday) and we’ll have to play better.”
St. George’s, which started two freshmen and a sophomore along the back line because of a rash of injuries, got more bad news when goalkeeper Max Underwood left just two minutes in after taking a hit to the face that left him bloody and missing a tooth.
Center back Blake Nicolia took over in goal and gave a good accounting early. The Gryphons took the lead 19 minutes in as Soren Jensen played a great ball over the top to Carson Schelp, who scored.
ECS (3-2-0, fifth in The Commercial Appeal’s Great Eight) kept pushing and eventually broke through. Kuku Kumtor tied it in the 26th minute before Conner Deck put the Eagles ahead two minutes later. Matthew Hunt scored shortly after that before Peter Linn made it 4-1 at halftime.
John David Lowe then got the nicest goal of the game early in the second half, lobbing Nicolia from about 30 yards. Schelp closed the scoring 20 minutes from the end.
“We’re thin; we just don’t have the depth in defense,” said Gryphons coach Tony Whicker, who also lost defender Jonathan McNeill with an apparent broken collarbone.
OTHER SOCCER GAMES
Collierville (8-1-0), ranked second, got goals from Colin McPherson and Jackson Bentley to defeat Germantown, 2-1. The Red Devils (3-3-1) got a goal from Malik Saleah. ... Seventh-ranked Kingsbury got a pair of goals from Leandro Aldaco in a 4-1 victory over thirdranked MUS. Giovanni Gonzalez and Sabir Alshuja also scored for the Falcons (6-1-0). Tom Fowlkes scored for the Owls (7-2-0) . ... Ian Evans scored on a first-half penalty as White Station edged eighth-ranked St. Benedict, 1-0.
IN BASEBALL
Houston, second in the Dandy Dozen, had no trouble with Athens (Alabama), winning 14-2. .. Noah Sharp got the win as Harding, third in the Dandy Dozen and first in the state in Division 2-A, beat ECS 8-4 . ... Larkey Dotson allowed just two hits as Bolton beat No. 8 Covington, 8-0.
IN SOFTBALL
Top-ranked Brighton (15-6) beat Hardin County, 12-1 and 3-1. Seeley Layne won both games and Marisa Moss homered in each game. Haley Rider hit her fourth of the season in the second game to match Moss’ season total. ... Second-ranked Arlington (16-6) scored 15 runs in the first to defeat district rival Cordova, 21-0 . ... Kelsey Gross pitched her fifth perfect game of the year and Dana Zayed went 3 for 3 with three RBIs as No. 4 Collierville (14-6) topped Southwind, 15-0. ... Taylor Beasley went 4 for 4 and scored three runs and Abby West and Shelby Clifton each had three RBIs as Tipton-Rosemark beat Munford 8-1.