Trying not to look too far into the weekend, the Fourth Region boys soccer darlings of Todd County Central picked up a needed 4-0 road win against Second Region Fort Campbell Thursday night — another turf field preparing them for important upcoming battles.
Sophomore John Ross Cardwell had the brace, giving him 20 goals and 11 assists in 15 games, while senior Chris Salazar snagged his 10th goal and 16th assist, freshman Memphis Bell rang the posts for the first time this season, and freshman Alexander Figueroa notched his second assist on the year.
“We started out flat,” noted coach Mike Smith, “but I limited minutes for starters in both halves. We just didn’t convert on as many chances in the first half as I would’ve liked.”
Five minutes into the match, Salazar’s corner kick turned into a header from Cardwell, and gave the Rebels — now 12-2-1 — a 1-0 advantage.
There was a stretch in that first half, Smith added, where Dan Drier’s Falcons (now 4-7-2) had four corner kicks in a row. One of them hit the inside top corner and bounced out to hit the football goal post — which caused a dead ball.
Smith said the Falcons’ bench was upset, and Rebels kept a 1-0 lead at the break.
Smith also called his squad a “second-half team,” and scoring started quickly when leading scorer Tanner Henderson was taken out from behind the box — and Salazar buried the penalty kick to make it 2-0.
Minutes later, Cardwell scored on Figueroa’s assist to make it 3-0, in what Smith described to be a “great service over the back of Fort Campbell’s line.”
Fort Campbell earned a penalty kick, and a chance to make it 3-1, but they missed it low and to the keeper’s right side. Smith said freshman John Mark Campbell, who had two saves in the shutout, dove in that direction and had it covered.
Pulling starting attackers with 20 minutes left in regulation, Bell still scored with nine minutes left on the clock. He crashed the goal on a free kick from Salazar, and a bad catch led to an easy putback for the final tally.
After going 5-9-2 in 2021, Todd County Central boys soccer now has at least 12 wins in three straight years. Ahead of them so far in the region, though, based on RPI are Bowling Green (9-0-1), Warren Central (8-4-2) and Franklin-Simpson (8-4).
NEXT UP: The Rebels leave for the All “A” State Tournament Friday, and open their title hopes against 13th Region, 49th District power Oneida Baptist Institute — which is 10-1 on the year.
Coach Cory Steltenpohl and the Mountaineers are 5-0 in regional play, 2-0 in district play, and have surrendered only five goals — two of them in their lone defeat on the season: 2-1 to Madison Central on September 14.
Two players — Hero Khajohnsupawatchara (18 goals, 11 assists) and Amadeus Martin (15 goals, 10 assists) — have at least 40 points in 11 games, while Enrique Gabardo, Noah Jeon, Akawak Bekele and Jonathan Fan all have at least 10 points.
In their Tuesday, September 17, 3-1 victory against regional nemesis South Laurel, keeper Jason Fan was credited with 15 saves, while Khajohnsupawatchara had two goals and one assist, and Gabardo had one goal and two assists.
