By: Garrett Mitchell, Staff Writer
garrett@thewoodrufftimes.com
The Woodruff boys’ soccer team knew what they had to do to keep their region championship hopes alive.
Facing a Greer Middle College team that had defeated the Wolverines 2-0 two weeks ago, Woodruff slammed the door on the Blazers in dominating fashion, winning 4-0 in what head coach Aaron Chappell described as the team’s most complete game of the season.
“There’s no question this was the best game we have played this season,” Chappel said. “We came off a really bad loss (to Broome) on Tuesday. I give them credit; they took it to us, and we didn’t respond. Tonight, we got the response we were looking for.”
For all intents and purposes, the outcome was never really in doubt.
Woodruff locked down GMCC with their stifling defense while using timely shots to stake themselves to a 2-0 halftime lead. The Wolverines would clamp down even harder in the second half.
Juan Pineda scored on an incredible cross-field inbounds throw from Ian Silverio, which found Pineda open in the middle of the box to increase the lead to 3-0. A few minutes later, Garcia slammed the door on a header goal right in front of the net. Though he was shaken up on the play, Garcia knew what needed to be done for his team to win the game.
“It feels great,” stated Garcia. “We do it for our brothers. We showed them who Woodruff was today. I just wanted to get up to play with my brothers and keep grinding.”
With the victory, Woodruff improved to 12-2 and 5-2 in region play. The victory separated the Wolverines from GMCC, who now have three region losses, and sets up what essentially amounts to a region championship game with Chapman next week.
“All we have talked about in practice is competing,” Chappell added. “No matter who the jersey is, no matter the time of day or who we play, we have to go out and compete, and they did that tonight.”
Woodruff defeated Chapman on penalty kicks in their first meeting, which is so far the Panthers’ only region loss. If that stays true, a Woodruff win would catapult the Wolverines to the top of the standings via tiebreaker.
Pineda, one of the heroes of the Greer Middle College win, knows the team has an opportunity to win its third region title in the past four seasons and wants to make that happen.
“We want to prepare in practice and get 100 percent every day,” said Pineda. “This win felt good because the first time we played (GMCC), we did not uphold our standard. We have a chance to win region. We just have to keep our heads up and keep working.”
