Behind three from Medina, Bears power past opening round foe

It was an unstoppable display of scoring precision that would make Steven Moore proud.

Houston County High senior striker Cristian Medina, with the sun in his face, did his best ‘score-at-will’ exhibition that defined Moore’s Player of the Year career for Bears soccer Tuesday in the opening round of GHSA AAAAA state tournament action. Medina’s three-goal hat-trick spanning almost three minutes in the second half turned a tight contest with visiting Richmond Hill High into a 6-1 rout at home.

The No. 6 ranked Houston County boys, coming off a 4-0 loss to No. 2 Greenbrier in the Region 2-AAAAA finals held April 21, next face Dunwoody High on the road. The second round matchup is slated for May 3.

Medina at times played like a basketball point guard looking to initiate action deep in the right corner on Richmond Hill’s defensive end. The Wildcats, however, stood their ground for the first half giving up one early goal. Each team had one shot in the opening five minutes, Houston missing its chance wide and sophomore Declan Furlough saving one from a right angle at 36:50.

Furlough also scooped up a ball from a strong Wildcat goal kick less than a minute later.

Behind a defense paced by Tim Freeman and Hunter Henry, the Bears established ball possession dominance. Medina’s pass to George Slaughter on the break was saved (34:10), and Michael Fussel took a blast from the passing combinations by Medina, Zach Rush and Heath Henry (33:30).

Hunter Germundsen, a junior midfielder, was also involved in attacking action with Medina and Derek Little. Little took a head shot scooped up in net, but the Bears maintained the ball and earned a throw-in on the right side. Carlos Aguilera passed in to Germundsen, who headed in the goal at 30:53.

Houston County was doing all of this and still had yet to use senior striker Ja Vaughn Todd. But he was there and checked in, and Medina was quick to get him into the flow. Richmond Hill’s marker kept up with Todd well, but the Bear put on a move to get inside, but his shot was cleared away (25:45).

Medina continued to create on the dribble outside. His pass inside to Slaughter at 19:50 was smothered.

Richmond Hill had a pair of free kicks on its attacking end as the half moved under 15 minutes. Freeman dealt with one, and the Bears as a team made the Wildcats take the ball all the way back to their goalkeeper on the other.

Furlough was then put back to the test at 11:32 with a foot save. RH broke loose with the ball in the penalty box. And at 9:54, he found the ball bouncing high in the air amid a group of Wildcats.

Of Houston’s remaining shots of the first half, the first was saved after passes back and forth by Medina and Tucker Mercier (10:23). Both Medina and Germundsen missed open looks, and Germundsen won a bad goal kick. Todd’s ensuing shot went off his own teammate in the final minute.

Three minutes into the second half, Richmond Hill was inches from leveling the score. Working the ball in the right corner, the shot went off the far post. Clayton Martin got it out of the box.

It would only take seconds from that clear for Heath Henry to pass from the outside into the box. There, Fussel was waiting for a scoring strike and 2-0 Bears (36:39).

Richmond Hill cleared out two other Houston chances early, including the corner kick Rush took and Slaughter headed under the 34-minute mark.

The Medina scoring show wasn’t far away, for Fussel sent the lead pass onside, and Medina kicked it ahead of his defender. With only the goalkeeper to stop him, Medina had his first point at 33:01.

And at 32:44, Medina’s marker slipped on the grass. So the striker charged as close as he could to the line and had goal No. 2.

Freeman and Aguilera, even with their team up 4-0, were huge on defense. From their efforts, Rush took the ball and chipped a lead pass onside to Medina. The keeper kept the right post covered, but the Bear used all the space remaining to make it a 5-0 game.

When Median took a shot from 17 yards away – with authority and thanks to the baseline hustle from Germundsen – Richmond Hill saved that one at the 27-minute mark.

The final Houston goal was from Rush in the box at 25:33. Furlough recorded two more saves at 23:45 and at 2:48 before the Wildcats broke the shutout bid.

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