Greenville boys earn Senior Night shutout win over the visiting Graham Falcons
GREENVILLE – The Greenville boys varsity soccer team earned a 1-0 Senior Night win over the visiting Graham Falcons with Avery Ernst posting a shutout in goal for the Green and White.
“Proud of our players,” said first year Greenville coach, Marshall Combs. “They played their hearts out.”
The teams took the field in a 6 p.m. Saturday night game with temperatures in the low 50’s at game time – the first “cold” match of the season for the Green Wave varsity squad.
“Soccer is one of those games where you will run and burn so many calories and you are running so many miles in a game that sometimes colder weather is better to play a soccer game in because of your body trying to regulate the heat,” noted Combs. “Colder games sometimes can work to your advantage in soccer.”
The teams played to a 0-0 score after a first half of play in a defensive struggle with the Wave’s Avery Ernst in goal.
Greenville freshman, Juan Gutierrez scored the game’s lone goal of the night with 22:57 showing on the second half scoreboard.
“We had a freshman score that goal for our team,” Marshall stated. “That is an amazing accomplishment for him and the seniors tonight gave everything they had, every one of them gave everything they had.”
The Wave defense was up to the task of keeping the visitors off the board over the remainder of the match preserving the non-conference shutout win with Ernst guarding the goal the entire 8o minutes of play.
“That clock was making me very stressed out and nervous,” Coach Combs with a chuckle, “but 1-0 to another varsity team when most of my team is very young, new, a lot of freshmen.”
“They played till that very last second,” added Coach Combs. “I am so proud of everybody.”
Four seniors played their final home soccer match for Greenville. Coach Combs had kind words to say about each senior in a rebuilding season for the Green Wave program.
“Owen Snyder is a very strong leader on the defense. Ethan Knoop is a very strong leader for our midfield and center defense as well. He is very good at communicating.”
“Xavier Maitlen is a very technical good player and a very good communicator on the center midfield. He can control the whole field and he is very good at communicating and telling guys where to go.”
“Oriol Ribera-Garcia is our fourth senior and he is our top striker. Very strong body and he makes a lot of good passes. A lot of good communication and energy up there.”
“It definitely motivates the guys to put in the effort in the offseason and it definitely lets us end on a good note,” Coach Combs said of the Senior Night victory.
Greenville returns six freshman, one sophomore and three juniors for the 2022 season.
