Cyclones stifle David Crockett

By Allen LaMountain
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
alamountain@starhq.com

   With a goal in the first minute of play and the insurance goal in the 77th minute, the Elizabethton Cyclones dominated a depleted David Crockett squad by a 2-0 tally on Monday night at Brown-Childress Stadium.
   Four quick touches by EHS (4-5-3) in the opening seconds of play led to a goal by Sandy Nave and it looked to be a long night for the Pioneers, but stand-in goalkeeper Jason Surginer did a fine job between the pipes for Crockett, turning away 17 of the 19 shots EHS put on him.
   The first touch for 'Betsy was a pass from Luke Carrier down the sideline to Jonathan Cook, who quickly found Gavin McKinney in the middle. With the Crockett defense now on its heels, McKinney spun and found Nave on the back side and Nave drilled it home.
   "Gavin slid it right over to me on that first goal," said Nave. "I was pretty much unmarked that whole first half. Crockett was having trouble on transition, and he put it to me and I had to finish that goal."
   Crockett (6-7) began the night with five starters out due to illness and injury, and had a hard time sustaining any offense all night, but Surginer's efforts kept the Pioneers within striking distance.
   "He's not even our keeper, our starter broke his arm against North and is out for the season," said Pioneers head coach Tony Snapp. "We brought him in from the backfield to play (there), and I told him he played a real good game.
   "We played three fellas tonight that don't start on varsity, and we have played five games in last three days. We played in the Gatlinburg tournament this weekend, so we are beat up pretty bad."
   In the first half the Cyclones peppered nine shots at the Crockett goal -- including a penalty kick in the box -- but Surginer was up to the task, turning away all but the goal by Nave.
   Michael Tierney had a golden opportunity to give 'Betsy some breathing room when he was given a penalty kick, but his boot toward the left post was caught cleanly by a diving Surginer.
   EHS outshot Crockett by a 9-1 tally in the first half, but had the slimmest of leads to show for it.
   "We had a lot of opportunities," said Cyclones head coach Bill McClay. "We missed a penalty kick, we missed on one that Cook almost headed in, and really had shots the whole game. We played well defensively. Jeff Allman was very calm back there, and he's just a freshman. I thought all our backfield guys played well."
   The second half saw much of the same as EHS had 10 more shots against the beleaguered Crockett net-minder, but it wasn't until the 77th minute when 'Betsy finally put the Pioneers away.
   Lincoln Orellana found Nave on the corner, and his shot was deflected by Surginer off the post from where McKinney drilled it home for the insurance tally.
   Cyclone goalkeeper David Poston made two nice saves in the second half to preserve the shutout. The first was on a free kick by Mark Whitson in which Poston dove to his left and deflected the shot wide of the net and out of play.
   The second was also on a shot by Whitson that Poston deflected, but not enough to clear out of the box. Orellana, however, quickly pounced on the loose ball and kicked it out of play to turn away the best chance Crockett saw all night.
   "We got the shutout, we'll take that," commented McClay. "We didn't make any fatal errors, but I thought that scoring early would get us on a roll. As it was we didn't get the insurance goal until the 75th minute or so, but it's a good win for us."