Houston County High School boys soccer prides itself on numerous things. Working together as a cohesive unit, the winners of four straight region championships are poised to make even more history, keeping that streak alive and going as far as the latest eurosportscoreboard.com Class AAAAA ranking says the Bears can go.
After shutting out visiting Thomasville High Wednesday 6-0, Houston County owns a 7-0 record going into this coming Wednesday’s non-region road match at Columbus High. The Bears’ start under second-year head coach Jason Kirk earned the Bears its highest state ranking ever, No. 5.
Four of the seven matches so far ended in a shutout, and that’s with Kirk’s new freshman goalkeeper Adam Myers. The toughest test so far was in the opener at a tournament hosted by Coffee County High, and Houston edged out the Trojans 2-1.
Steven Moore, a sophomore, is the Bears’ leading goal scorer, a position he solidified by hitting the back of the net four times Wednesday.
Kirk already has three seniors on their way to college soccer programs after graduation: Dylan Krimmer, Everick Little and Andrew Weber. There are six other seniors, including football placekicker Will Cowart and an active midfielder in Colin Little (no relation to Everick).
“With our big senior class, we have a lot of leadership skills,” said Kirk. “We have two freshmen this year. There’s a big sophomore class. The leadership’s mainly coming from (the seniors). I let them do the talking for me sometimes, like when practice isn’t going so hard and we’re not going after it like we should.”
In terms of goals allowed – another one of those pride points in this program – the Bears have allowed four, two coming on Tuesday when Houston won at Peach County 6-2. Warner Robins High also scored on the Bears Monday, and that goal put the Demons in front before Houston registered six straight to win.
“We’re still working on it,” said Kirk. “It is a work in progress. We always typically like to defend first and counterattack second.
“(Myers) has a lot of potential. He’s a good kid who constantly wants to get better. The good thing is we have three keepers on the varsity squad (junior Bryce Dawson and senior Jonathan Jara). They all push each other for playing time. Last year we only had one. Dawson is doing very well in terms of pushing. They all have good camaraderie together and work hard together.”
It is obvious that Houston’s fast, aggressive, persistent offensive attack is also consistent with six goals in all three matches of the past week. The season high is nine goals against Jones County in a Region 2-AAAAA sub-region match held Feb. 26.
“We’re still in the midst of finding out what our best plan of attack is,” said Kirk. “We have goals from I believe 10 different players. We distribute the ball pretty evenly.”
In the match against Warner Robins – Houston County’s top soccer rival – Kirk said the Demon goal came in the first 90 seconds, and it left them flustered. The Bears were able to both tie and go ahead at the half.
“It was tough there for a minute, but we got through it,” said Kirk.
That was also a sub-region win. This season may bring Houston’s biggest threat to the region title streak. In that same top 10 ranking, Greenbrier is No. 4 with one loss to a school from Aiken, S.C., and Lakeside-Evans is No. 10 with a 3-1 loss to Greenbrier on Tuesday.
Houston only lost once in the 2012 regular season, and that was 3-2 against Columbus. Kirk hopes the team goes on the Blue Devil field fired up for revenge and keep the streak going into more sub-region play with Northside March 21 and Warner Robins again on March 26.
For the Bears, it will still be about getting deep in the state tournament and shaking off the bitter taste of last season’s Sweet 16 shootout loss at home to Northwest Whitfield.
“That’s the hard part,” said Kirk. “Staying motivated, trying to get better, making sure you are better and making sure you are motivating your teammate to get better as well. It’s tough throughout the entire year, but I try to mix things up in practice to keep these guys interested. For the most part, they’re all winners.
“(The loss) is still sickening to most of these guys. I remind them about it all the time. That’s our motivating factor.”
In the Thomasville match, the Bears had another unofficial teammate in the strong wind going from one baseline to the other. Houston was able to get that in its favor for the first half, and paired with the usual aggressiveness the home team won numerous corners and forced lots of goal kicks.
Senior Drew Behrman, at 33:20, had a corner nearly bend in the goal.
At 30:32, Colin Little assisted Moore’s first goal. Three more corner kicks followed over a span of eight minutes with 50-50 domination in the backline from Cowart, Krimmer and Everick Little. E. Little then moved up when Kirk made his substitutions and bothered the Bulldogs with hard dribbling and steals.
Myers’ first action on the ball came at 18:39. Thirty seconds later C. Little took a shot saved. Myers fell on a loose ball with a few other players nearby at 15:10.
The only time a goalkeeper can’t pick up a soccer ball is when it is kicked to him by a teammate. That’s what the Bulldogs did, and E. Little made that keeper nervous by making a charge after such a kick. Later in the Bear possession, with 10 minutes to play, Moore had goal No. 2 when the keeper could not get down for a save.
Moore shot high of the mark at 9:36, and Behrman’s 20-yard attempt was saved at 4:25. Senior Ezequiel Morales attacked from the left, passed to Behrman, and the official was in place to see Behrman’s shot cross the line just enough for Houston’s 3-0 lead (3:35).
The Bears went into halftime ahead 4-0 thanks to a penalty kick. Behrman received an onside lead pass, attacked on the left side and a host of players sped to catch up and force a corner. The penalty occurred during the ensuing action, and E. Little cashed it in with a minute to play.
Thomasville needed some keeper magic in the final 15 seconds just to stay down four goals.
C. Little assisted Moore’s third goal six minutes into the second half.
Cowart, near the right sideline, had a shot on goal saved 10 minutes in after a corner kick. Myers earned a save at 25:56. Bill Hess, after a steal by Patrick Patisaul, took a high shot at 24:45. Patisaul’s own attempt at a point was saved three minutes later.
The Bulldogs had much better play in goal for the second half with a save of a ball tipped by Will Pospisil (off Weber’s free kick 25 yards away) at 11:25. Moore, however, found himself one-on-one after Patisaul passed the ball in from the right with four minutes to play (6-0).
LADY BEARS ROLLING
Speaking of high school soccer teams on fire, the Lady Bears of Houston County High are 5-0 with three 10-goal matches and one with nine scores. Only two times has anyone scored on Sid Baxley’s bunch, and that was one each by Lee County and Peach County.
Thomasville High was a 10-0 victim Wednesday in Warner Robins. Lainey Choiniere, the freshman volleyball setter, was the first to get a goal on an assist from Rachel Preston.
The Lady Bears led 4-0 at the half, but it took a long time to see those next three goals on the board. Liz Upchruch was denied on an attack, and the visiting keeper used strong footwork to stop Preston’s dribble in the box.
Preston, at 24:30, took a header off a corner kick, but that too was saved. It wasn’t but 90 seconds later when Preston saw another chance to use her head from a corner kick, but that too was caught.
Jessica Do got involved in the action. She was in the middle of the box to take Brittany Greene’s rebound and pass for the second goal at 19:50. Do had a second shot from a corner kick saved three minutes later, and Preston’s 20-yard blast was stopped at 15:28.
Do stood a couple of yards outside the box when she fired away and scored her second at 14:04.
Following 10 minutes of even possession time and no shots taken, Kaylee Bromell took a long lead pass and scored the fourth first-half goal. She had another attempt in the last six seconds batted away.
Greene scored three times and had two assists in the second half. Bromell and Jasmine Johnson also scored, Johnson assisting goals twice.
The Lady Bears won 10-1 at Peach County Tuesday. Sholah Rezaee had four goals and Choiniere two with two assists. Houston destroyed Warner Robins 9-0, seven goals coming in the first half. Upchurch, Greene and Karrissa Engram each scored twice.
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