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Senior
Jacob Clark blocks a Vandalia-Butler player from the
ball Tuesday during the Wave
GWOC North battle. The Aviators edged the
Wave 2-1.
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Greenville plays best game of the year
Wave topped by
Butler
By George Starks
GREENVILLE- Without a doubt, it was the best game the Greenville boys
soccer team has played this season.
In a hard fought 80 minutes of soccer, Greenville, despite its best
efforts, couldn’t overcome two first half Vandalia-Butler goals,
eventually falling to the visiting Aviators, 2-1 Tuesday.
“Tonight was definitely the best we’ve played until now,” said Wave
coach Brent DeVoss. “I think we were intimidated by them at first but
we got back into the game in the second half and played the way we are
capable of playing. Butler is the defending GWOC North champions
now, two years in a row.”
Butler scored at the 12:52 mark of the opening half on a kick by Phil
Royer.
The Aviators would go up 2-0 with 6:49 remaining in the frame on a goal
by Casey Plyman.
That would be all the Aviators would get the rest of the night as
senior keeper Sam Bowers would slam the door shut the rest of the way,
keeping Greenville in contention for the win.
“That is why Sam is a captain for us,” said DeVoss. “He works hard for
this team and is a good leader. He plays his butt off and he was hit
hard with some great shots and he made some great saves.”
Down 2-0 at the break, Greenville finally busted through the Butler
defense with 19:52 left in the game.
With the Butler defense pulled away from the goal, Bailey Hayworth
punched the ball into the net for the lone Wave score of the night.
“Bailey just kept going. Every ball that he could play, he was there,”
DeVoss stated. “Persistence, that’s the key that will be a part of our
success if we want to be successful and Bailey is that way. He plays
every ball hard and that’s what we need to do as a team. His
persistence paid off huge to get that goal. The momentum shifted after
that goal. We had our chances but we missed”
The persistence of Hayworth may have rubbed off as the aggressiveness
and intensity started to show through with the rest of the team.
“This is the best I’ve seen all year,” said DeVoss. “The kids stepped
it up tenfold tonight. We’ve been asking for that all year and tonight
we got it. We attacked the ball and won a lot of balls. I challenged
the kids tonight telling them, ‘Guys, we’ve been losing. What do we
have to lose? Show me what you’ve got.’ They did that tonight. We
put pressure on a very good, division one team.”
Now 2-11 on the year, Greenville will play at Sidney on Tuesday.
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