CAK's scoring steady as rain in sectional
By John Shearer
Posted May 18, 2013 at 6:42 p.m.
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The rain was sporadic Saturday afternoon during the Christian Academy of Knoxville boys’ soccer game against visiting University School of Johnson City, but the Warrior scoring was quite steady.
CAK (20-3) spaced its goals out almost evenly over both halves for an easy 9-1 victory in the Class A-AA sectional game to reach the state tournament.
“The boys had a lot of incentive to win this match,” said CAK head coach Kurt Backstrom, whose team will try to defend its state title this week in Murfreesboro. “We were highly motivated and moved the ball well, and I just think things kind of clicked.”
Turning in a memorable performance with three goals was senior Steve Thompson. But his scoring wasn’t tricky, it was straight power.
“Steve is a gamer,” said Backstrom. “The tougher the game, the better he plays. He did the same thing last year in the state tournament. He’s one of those kids who knows when he has to produce.”
Thompson, the youngest member of a family of CAK athletes that included brother Dean and sisters Mary and Julie, was all smiles after the game.
“It was really good to just go out on a note like that and know we kind of controlled the game,” he said. “To go out with a hat trick was definitely fun.”
He scored his team’s third, fifth and eighth goals. After his final goal, he was taken out and saluted over the loudspeaker, as a number of other seniors were in the second half to add a little sentiment to the excitement for the CAK faithful.
Ryan Creel started the scoring for CAK early in the first half, and Dallas Dunn and Thompson scored in the 13th and 14th minutes.
Suddenly, the outcome seemed more certain than the rain holding off.
Wade Crutchfield put the Warriors up 4-0 with just less than two minutes remaining in the half.
Brady Sant scored University School’s (13-4) only goal late in the first half.
Thompson and Josh Morgan had goals early in the second half to make the score 6-1. Then a heavy rain began, but that did not stop the Warriors, as Morgan and Thompson scored again. Christian Bruner closed out the scoring with 24 seconds left.
“They’ve got a really good team,” said University School coach Victor Chirica. “They play the ball very fast paced. They are very skillful.”
© 2013, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
