Knights finish regular season with homecoming rout of Chargers
By Andrew Schnittker
aschnittker@wilsontimes.com | 265-7807 | Twitter: @aschnitt53
The Greenfield School boys soccer team couldn’t have asked for a much better night to end its regular season Friday night. A crisp, cool fall night, a raucous home crowd and a 7-1 drubbing of NCISAA 2-A/3-A Coastal Plain Independents Conference rival Wayne Country Day made for an evening to remember for the Knights and their fans.
Revenge was on the minds of the Knights, who finished the regular season 15-3-1 overall and 7-1 in CPIC play, after falling 6-1 to the Chargers (7-7, 4-4) a year ago. It was a boisterous celebration after the game for Greenfield, complete with the team running over to celebrate with the fans, snapping a team picture — and even a Gatorade cooler bath for head coach Justin Wilkinson.
“We were looking forward to this match all year,” said Greenfield senior Nathan Lozevski. “Especially since we lost so badly last year. We wanted to come out, prove our point, make our statement and make a strong point for the playoffs.”
The Knights built a 3-1 lead at halftime and tacked on four more in the second half. Jo Willem-Tewes led the Knights with two goals and three assists, followed by Lozevski with two goals and an assist. Landyn Coolbaugh notched a goal and two assists, Noah Wright tallied a goal and a helper and Lee Powell also scored.
“Everything’s starting to come together,” Wilkinson said. “Everything we’ve been training for, working the ball out of the back, pushing forward and everything. So things are starting to click, we’re starting to find people’s natural positions and working forward.”
The Knights piled up 24 shots to just seven for Wayne Country Day, as Greenfield controlled play and scoring chances for the majority of the game.
Nick Wester was only called upon to make three saves for Greenfield.
“We’ve done a lot of practice with volleys and corner kicks, things like that,” Wilkinson said. “So just finishing any shots that we have is just something that we’ve been talking about the whole time too.”
Greenfield didn’t waste much time opening the scoring, with Wright heading in a corner kick from Coolbaugh just eight minutes in. About four minutes later, the Knights doubled their lead with Willem-Tewes knocking in a pass from Lozevski at the top of the 6.
Thomas Gurley gave Wayne Country Day its only goal to make it 2-1 with 13:29 left in the first half, but Willem-Tewes restored a two-goal lead for Greenfield late in the half by taking a pass from Wright, dribbling it to the corner of the box and firing it home.
“We just played for each other,” Lozevski said. “That’s what we’ve been trying to put together all season, working hard for each other, having each other’s backs and eventually the goals will come in once we keep working hard.”
Powell buried a low shot early in the second half to put Greenfield up 4-1, and from there the rout was on as Lozevski tallied twice and Coolbaugh added his marker for the final margin.
On homecoming night at Greenfield, the Knights got a chance to play in an electric home atmosphere, with fans packed along the sideline cheering them on.
“It’s always the biggest event of the year,” Lozevski said. “We’ve always had the privilege and honor to play out here in front of our fans. And we just wanted to give them a show tonight.”
The Knights finished the regular season on an absolute tear, only losing a single game after the month of August and only dropping one conference game, putting themselves in a strong position going into the NCISAA postseason.
Greenfield will find out its seed and first-round opponent when the brackets are released Sunday. The NCISAA playoffs will start Tuesday, but the Knights have hope of earning a top-eight seed and double bye into the third round on Saturday, Oct 22.
“They have us seeded lower than I would hope or us to be,” Lozevski said. “But we’re going to prove our point and make our statement early in the playoffs.”
