BY BRIAN HAMILTON
SEVIERVILLE – Sevier County came into its second game of the Smoky Mountain Cup on Saturday afternoon looking to rebound from a 3-0 loss to Concord Christian the previous night.
“We gave up (a goal) in the first half and in the second half we made a few mistakes that led directly to goals and it’s just the way the game of soccer works,” Sevier County head coach Tim Bohanan said of Friday night’s loss. “It happened and we had to find a way to bounce back and that was our challenge today.”
It’s safe to say that the Bearettes bounced back, emphatically, as sophomore Lilly Faulkner scored a hat trick in the first half and finished with four goals, as Sevier County downed Stone Memorial 5-1.
“I feel like it was a great first step to bounce back today,” said Bohanan. “We’re really trying to focus on the things we’ve been doing in practice and they looked a lot better today.”
The Bearettes drew first blood in the match, as Faulkner scored an early goal for a 1-0 lead. The Lady Panthers would strike back, tying the match at 1-1 early on.
Sevier County’s Lilly Faulkner battles a Stone Memorial player for the ball. Faulkner scored four goals in the contest. Photo by Brian Hamilton
Faulkner scored two more goals in the early going, giving the sophomore a hat trick just midway through the first half. Addison Brewer would add a goal with just under seven minutes remaining in the half, as Sevier County would go to intermission with a 4-1 advantage.
Both teams were scoreless for most of the second period until Faulkner scored her fourth goal with 16:37 left in the contest. Just minutes later, Faulkner had an opportunity for her fifth goal with just the goaltender in space to beat, but the shot sailed wide.
“(Lilly) is a sophomore this year and really burst on the scene last year, as a freshman, and I really expect big things out of her this year,” Bohanan said. “We have a big sophomore class and have a lot of young players on our team and Lilly is clearly one of them. She’s got a nose for the ball and her teammates did a good job of finding her and putting her in position and when she got in position she made the most of it.”
While three goals is considered a hat trick, Bohanan gave his best pitch for what scoring four goals in a game should be called.
“I don’t even know what they call four goals,” Bohanan said. “They call two a brace, they call three a hat trick, and I don’t know what they call four. Maybe we just need to name it after (Lilly), it’s her jersey number, so maybe we just need to call it a ‘Lilly’.
After the game was delayed for lightning in the area, the teams agreed to call the match final with 6:46 left to play, as Sevier County won 5-1.
“There was lightning in the area and we have to wait 30 minutes every time there’s a lightning strike,” Bohanan said. “The other coach just decided to call it. Often times in tournaments they won’t wait out the 30 minutes. Had it been just a normal regular season game, we’d have probably waited the 30 minutes. Generally, that would come to a coaches decision, but if it gets to an extended delay and we’re beyond halftime, then the game is considered official.”
The Bearettes went on to defeat Goodpasture Christian 2-0 in their third and final game of the Smoky Mountain Cup on Saturday night.
“It’s tough for us playing three games in two days, but at the same time it’s great because we had the result we had last night (loss to Concord) and we were able to come back, first thing today, and go ahead and get the opportunity to get that out of our system and just rebound from that. That’s a real positive. It’s neat to play in this tournament because we see teams that we wouldn’t ordinarily have the chance to see throughout the season. It’s great for us to get these early season tests.”
Sevier County (2-2) will travel to Oneida (1-1) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.