Neuse Christian steamrolls KVA
HENDERSON — After obtaining their first win of the 2020 season over Bradford Academy, the Kerr-Vance Academy soccer team struggled to keep up with Neuse Christian Academy, which defeated them 9-1 on Thursday evening.
Head coach George Hoyle Jr. expected a win against Neuse Christian to pose numerous obstacles, but even though he believed his team’s first half could have been better, he came away from the defeat believing his players had learned a lot about where they need to improve their overall performance.
“We knew they were going to be a good opponent,” Hoyle said. “Neuse Christian is the defending state champion in 1A and now they’re in 2A. We were excited for the challenge, but I don’t think we came out to begin the game with as much energy as we needed, but you can learn a lot from playing good opponents.”
Thursday’s contest started on the wrong note for KVA after surrendering a goal in the first 15 seconds to Neuse Christian. They attempted to make a charge down the field, but quickly found themselves down 3-0 when Neuse Christian snuck two more goals past their defense.
Junior KVA goalkeeper Shane Musselman found himself under duress all afternoon, but despite surrendering two more goals before halftime, he made several great saves that kept the margin between KVA and Neuse Christian at a manageable distance.
Hoyle knew that his players could put together a better showing than what they displayed in the first 40 minutes of the game, and told them during the intermission that tightening up their defense and talking with one another could help finish out both the game and the season strong.
“In all three games, we’ve challenged the team with objectives at halftime,” Hoyle said. “Today’s objective was very simple, which was to encourage better communication on defense and with marking up. I thought we did a good job with that, because we took away a lot of [Neuse Christian’s] opportunities.”
Neuse Christian found the back of the net on three different occasions during the opening minutes of the second half, but their pathway toward the goal gradually got more clogged by KVA, which used their improved defense to advance into Neuse Christian territory on a more frequent basis.
With the mercy rule looming, KVA’s efforts finally paid off in the 21st minute when freshman M.J. Wright got past Neuse Christian’s defense to score his first career goal, which trimmed his team’s deficit to 8-1.
Neither team would register another point until the closing seconds with one last Neuse Christian goal that got past Musselman, who capped off a busy afternoon with a total of 29 saves.
Although the score was lopsided, Hoyle praised the effort his players put together during the second half, and is optimistic that his players will learn from the loss and keep improving over the course of the year so they can contend for more wins.
“We want to keep the same trend,” Hoyle said. “Our theme of the year is to get better every day. If we can do that, then we’re going to be successful at the end of the year and we’ll be where we want to be.”
KVA will make the long trip to New Bern next Tuesday afternoon to face off against Epiphany at 4:00 p.m.
- By Brandon White bwhite@hendersondispatch.com; 252-436-2840
HENDERSON — After obtaining their first win of the 2020 season over Bradford Academy, the Kerr-Vance Academy soccer team struggled to keep up with Neuse Christian Academy, which defeated them 9-1 on Thursday evening.
Head coach George Hoyle Jr. expected a win against Neuse Christian to pose numerous obstacles, but even though he believed his team’s first half could have been better, he came away from the defeat believing his players had learned a lot about where they need to improve their overall performance.
“We knew they were going to be a good opponent,” Hoyle said. “Neuse Christian is the defending state champion in 1A and now they’re in 2A. We were excited for the challenge, but I don’t think we came out to begin the game with as much energy as we needed, but you can learn a lot from playing good opponents.”
Thursday’s contest started on the wrong note for KVA after surrendering a goal in the first 15 seconds to Neuse Christian. They attempted to make a charge down the field, but quickly found themselves down 3-0 when Neuse Christian snuck two more goals past their defense.
Junior KVA goalkeeper Shane Musselman found himself under duress all afternoon, but despite surrendering two more goals before halftime, he made several great saves that kept the margin between KVA and Neuse Christian at a manageable distance.
Hoyle knew that his players could put together a better showing than what they displayed in the first 40 minutes of the game, and told them during the intermission that tightening up their defense and talking with one another could help finish out both the game and the season strong.
“In all three games, we’ve challenged the team with objectives at halftime,” Hoyle said. “Today’s objective was very simple, which was to encourage better communication on defense and with marking up. I thought we did a good job with that, because we took away a lot of [Neuse Christian’s] opportunities.”
Neuse Christian found the back of the net on three different occasions during the opening minutes of the second half, but their pathway toward the goal gradually got more clogged by KVA, which used their improved defense to advance into Neuse Christian territory on a more frequent basis.
With the mercy rule looming, KVA’s efforts finally paid off in the 21st minute when freshman M.J. Wright got past Neuse Christian’s defense to score his first career goal, which trimmed his team’s deficit to 8-1.
Neither team would register another point until the closing seconds with one last Neuse Christian goal that got past Musselman, who capped off a busy afternoon with a total of 29 saves.
Although the score was lopsided, Hoyle praised the effort his players put together during the second half, and is optimistic that his players will learn from the loss and keep improving over the course of the year so they can contend for more wins.
“We want to keep the same trend,” Hoyle said. “Our theme of the year is to get better every day. If we can do that, then we’re going to be successful at the end of the year and we’ll be where we want to be.”
KVA will make the long trip to New Bern next Tuesday afternoon to face off against Epiphany at 4:00 p.m.
