Oak Ridge will travel to Science Hill for a Class AAA sectional on Saturday after losing to Farragut in the Region 2-AAA championship game at home on Thursday, May 18, 2017. Pictured above is junior midfielder Casey Nigh (12). (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was last updated at 11 a.m. May 19.
Oak Ridge will travel to Science Hill for a Class AAA sectional on Saturday after losing to Farragut in the Region 2-AAA championship game at home on Thursday.
The Admirals beat the Wildcats 2-1 at the Pro2Serve Oak Ridge Soccer Complex at Oak Ridge High School.
Science Hill, in Johnson City, was the the Region 1-AAA champion. The Hilltoppers beat Dobyns-Bennett of Kingsport 3-0 in the Region 1 championship on Thursday.
The winner of Saturday’s sectional game between Oak Ridge and Science Hill will advance to the state Class AAA soccer tournament. The season will be over for the loser.
Farragut will host Dobyns-Bennett, the Region 1 runner-up, in another sectional game on Saturday.
It’s the third straight trip to a Class AAA sectional for the Wildcats, with all three games being played in upper East Tennessee, either at Science Hill or Dobyns-Bennett.
It was the second time this year that Oak Ridge has lost to Farragut, once during the regular season and during the playoffs on Thursday.
The Admirals scored first in the 19th minute on Thursday when Wes Jeter was able to knock in a loose ball near the goal line after a direct free kick from just past midfield by Paul Calkins.
The Wildcats answered about five minutes later when senior forward Austin Vinyard scored from the right side of the field off a defensive rebound following a shot by Oak Ridge senior midfielder Brent Robinson, who was on the left side of the field.
Farragut scored the winning goal with 2:24 left in the first half after passing the ball from left to right and then into the center. Pablo Herrera of the Admirals dropped the ball into the box for Jeter, who fired his second goal into the left side of the net past Oak Ridge junior goalkeeper Austyn Lincoln, who dove to his right to try to make the save.
Neither team scored in the second half. Both teams had other scoring opportunities throughout the game, including several shots that were just over the crossbar and a few that were just wide of the goal. Alex Cooper of Farragut was credited with six shots.
The two teams were relatively evenly matched in shots in the first half and into the second, but the Admirals then outshot Oak Ridge in the later part of the second half. Farragut dominated the ball in the Oak Ridge end for the first 10 minutes of the game and then seemed to try to run time off the clock with about 17 minutes left.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today
Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today
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More information will be added as it becomes available.
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