Knoxville races past Hawks in 2A substate

KNOXVILLE – The Knoxville boys’ soccer team knows how to crash a throw-in.
The Panthers used the strategy repeatedly in their 4-0 win over Central Lee Tuesday in the  first round of Class 2A Substate 5  boys soccer action.  And they didn’t install it for the post-season.
“We didn’t underestimate them. We watched a lot of film on them and we knew who they were coming in. We just don’t play well on turf, and that’s our Achilles Heel,” said head coach Justin Schau.
The Panthers got strong, targeted throws into the box on any throw-in inside of 30 yards. And they always put senior Brody DeJong on the throw-in. DeJong would toss and spin the ball no more than 12 feet in the air right into the scrum and the Panthers found headers in the madness past keeper Tristan Robins twice for goals. A handful of other times the Hawks were able to clear the ball.
But Knoxville scored four times, all in the first half, and the Hawks couldn’t find their way out of the deficit, despite playing much stickier defense in the final 40 minutes.
DeJong got the scoring started for Knoxville nine minutes in with a deep shot from about 20 yards out that got past Robins, who’s just a sophomore and fended off the Panthers most of the night. He had nine saves on the night.
Central Lee would push the Panthers on the next possession and get a shot of their own from Jaedin Oglesby from about 20 feet, but it was right at Panther keeper Quentin VanderLinden, who dropped to a knee and smothered the ball. Peter Seyb, a senior, tried to track down through balls all night, but could only get free one time at the 24-minute mark, but VandeerLinden corralled that shot, as well.

Knoxville got their next goals in short order. Tommy Buttell got free from about 12 feet and fired a shot across the front left to right and Robins couldn’t get a hand on it, despite getting horizontal for the save attempt.. The next two goals came at 25:00 and 13:10  the first off a DeJong throw-in that Grant Gerdes popped in, making it 3-0. Drake Larson set the final score off a corner kick with a header.
The artificial surface at Randy Wilson Track is the Panthers' home field in Knoxville and Central Lee doesn’t get enough exposure to that during the season, Schau said.
“We just couldn’t keep up with them. We don’t play well on these surfaces and I thought we did a good job in the second half. But it’s so fast here, and the ball bounces so differently,” he said.
“That’s a great team. They’re fast and they’re skilled and every time they put another athlete on the field, they’re just as fast. You can tell these kids have played together for a while, too. Yeah, they’re a good team.”
He said the Hawks played at Williamsburg last week and it was a softer turf and didn’t create such high bounces. But he didn’t detract from the level of play the Panthers brought to the field.
"When you don't have speed, it gets killed by (their) speed  and we have a couple quick kids, but nothing flat out like they had."
“We got beat by a better team tonight,” he said.
The Hawks finish the year at 9-6 and were 5-3 in the SEI Super Conference.