TRAVELERS REST, S.C. – The Chapman Panthers boys soccer team entered Tuesday night’s Region 3-3A road matchup with only one goal at the forefront.
Just win. A pair of first half goals helped set the tone and propelled the Panthers to a 3-1 victory over the Travelers Rest Devildogs, which marked consecutive region championships for Chapman. Travelers Rest gained possession early and launched two shots on goal in the first six minutes of the contest. The first one occurred in the third minute from 18 yards out, where a Chapman defender quickly stepped in and turned it away. The latter of the two tries landed in the hands of Panther netminder Daniel Johnson. One minute later, John Anderson found the back of the net on the line of the six yard box off an assist from Rowan Block, staking the Panthers to a 1-0 lead. Not long after that, Chapman found its way back up field as Block found Jakob Schall in stride for a goal and a 2-0 Panther advantage. “I thought Travelers Rest was very good,” said Chapman head coach Chris DowDell. “They have good players in good spots on the field and are very dangerous. We have a young team, and I am proud of them because we had four freshmen and three sophomores starting, along with missing one of our best players in the midfield.” “They did what we asked them to and as a coach, you can’t ask for anything more. You have to trust the process, system, and each other, and they did.” The Devildogs answered back 10 minutes later as Jean Segura got behind the Panther defense along the right side and sent one into the net from eight yards out that cut the deficit to 2-1, which was the margin midway through the match. Chapman put up a trio of tries in the early portion of the second stanza, beginning with two shots on goal over a three minute span from the 18’ that each narrowly missed. Two minutes later, Brandon Vallecillo threaded a pass between two Devildog defenders to Tyler Garcia for a goal from seven yards out on the left side, making it a 3-1 lead for the Panthers at that juncture of the match. “It’s been really fun to watch,” DowDell remarked about the growth of the young core on the team. “The fun part of coaching and teaching is getting to watch kids develop as players and see them buy in… they have started to realize when they must ‘flip the switch’.” On the night, the Panthers’ defensive alignment held the Devildogs to five total shots, with only two that registered on goal. “We start teaching defense (on) day one. We start with one on one, then build it up to a team formation throughout the first couple weeks of training. We tell the boys that the foundation of our team will be defense. If they commit themselves to good and smart defending, we will find a lot of success. It’s hard to score in soccer, but it’s really hard to score against a good defensive team.” The Panthers (12-0-1, 7-0 Region) will host Travelers Rest on Friday evening in the last home match of the season, with kickoff slated for 7:30 PM. Senior Night festivities will take place between the girls and boys soccer matches. GIRLS – Travelers Rest 3, Chapman 1 It was a battle of two undefeated teams in Region 3-3A play as the Lady Panthers clashed with Travelers Rest. A pair of early goals proved to be key as the Lady Devildogs dealt Chapman their first loss on the region slate. Chapman had a few early opportunities but could not convert. In the tenth minute, the Panthers had a three-on-three breakaway and put three shots on goal within a 10 second span, which resulted in two deflections and a narrow miss to the right. Nine minutes later, the Devildogs stole the ball outside the 18’ and put a shot on goal, but the shot was turned away by the Panthers. But in the 25th minute, Addie Hawkins slid behind the defense and fired a strike from just inside the 18’ for a goal, staking Travelers Rest out to a 1-0 lead. “We knew that they were going to come at us early and they did,” said Chapman head coach Will Maley. “We countered pretty well. We just couldn’t put the ball away (in the net) in those first couple of minutes. I thought we had a couple of good looks and could get a goal or two out of those. The bad thing about the game is that if you’re not putting it on the frame, it could come back to bite you. Tonight, it did.” Travelers Rest made it a 2-0 advantage in the 44th minute on an Ashley Rose Wilson shot from inside the six yard box on the left side. Twelve minutes later, Wilson added another goal to the ledger on a shot from 15 yards out off a pass from Hawkins. The Panthers got on the board in the latter stages of the match when Illyana Washington put a corner kick on goal that ricocheted off a Devildog defender into the net, providing the final margin. Chapman (10-3, 6-1 Region) will host their last home match of the regular season on Friday against Travelers Rest, with a scheduled start time of 5:30 PM. Comments are closed.
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