Veterans boys soccer team falls in GHSA playoffs

Veterans suffered through a lackluster offensive performance in the first half and couldn’t overcome several defensive miscues as it was bounced from the GHSA Class AAAA boys soccer playoffs with a 3-1 home loss to Grady on Tuesday night.

Grady (13-4-1) attacked from the opening whistle pinning Veterans (14-6) deep in its own end until the Knights found an unmarked Anders Russell at the top of the box, who turned and drilled a right-footed shot into the back of the net just eight minutes in.

The Knights made it 2-0 on an own-goal five minutes later when a cross careened off of a Veterans shoulder and past keeper Robert Benge. The Warhawks didn’t manage their first shot until less than four minutes remained in the opening half.

Veterans did have a chance to cut the lead in half early after the break, but Dylan Blevins shot was cleared off of the line. A poor back-pass 12 minutes later found only the foot of Russell as he ran onto the ball and placed it calmly past Benge for a 3-0 advantage.

The Warhawks finally got on the board with 9:19 to play when Blevins cashed in an excellent cross from Max Wilkins. Veterans continued to press and narrowly missed another opportunity with five minutes to play, but it was too little too late.

TWO WHO MATTERED

Russell: The lengthy Grady forward finished with two goals on the night and created numerous other dangerous opportunities. His size and speed up front challenged the back line of Veterans all game long.

Wilkins: Veterans only offense seemed to come through Wilkins down the right flank. He put in a pair of nice crosses late, including on his assist.

OBSERVATIONS

Too much dribbling: Veterans was far too cautious in the middle of the pitch. The Warhawks kept trying to string together passes through the heart of the Grady defense instead of playing over the top with a direct style that was having much more success against a shaky Knights’ defense.

A step too slow: Grady was faster to each loose ball, although Veterans gave a better account of itself late in the match.

THEY SAID IT

Veterans head coach Matt Roth on his team’s performance: “I feel like we just didn’t play like we were capable of. We didn’t do the things that we needed to do to win. We talked about certain tactics that we just didn’t get done and didn’t operate well with.”

Roth on his team’s response late: “I felt like after we scored a goal that it was then that we finally woke up, but it was too late then to do anything. They caught us off-guard, we made some mistakes early and kind of got a little shocked by that. We just got too far in a hole.”

Roth on the success Veterans found with a direct style of offense: “We talked about the success we had all season with being more direct and getting the ball out in wide spaces, but we were stubborn to do that early. I felt like we weren’t taking enough chances with the ball. We were trying to set up for the perfect thing.”

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 9:22 PM with the headline "Veterans boys soccer team falls in GHSA playoffs."