North Adams boys soccer head coach Kirk Bunn, right, and assistant Duncan Hesler will lead the #2 seeded Green Devils into postseason in a district quarterfinal on October 16. (Photo by Tim Daulton)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
With the final week of the regular season upon them, the five high school soccer teams in the county are now sharing their thoughts with those of what the postseason might hold. On Sunday afternoon, the Southeast District Athletic Board released the brackets for the district soccer tournaments, with all five county teams playing in Division V.
There are only two girls soccer teams in the county and the North Adams Lady Devils, with a record of 8-8-1, earned the #7 seed and will host an opening round district game on October 13 at 6 p.m., battling #10 seeded Zane Trace (2-9-1), a team the Lady Devils just defeated 2-0 on September 30. A win there will catapult the Lady Devils into the district semifinals October 15 and a trip to Lynchburg to face the #2 seeded Lady Mustangs. North Adams and Lynchburg played on October 3 and ended in a 3-3 tie.
“We knew we would be placed somewhere in the middle, said North Adams head coach Morgan Hendrickson. “We are a young team and we have had some challenges with multiple injuries lasting for four-six weeks mixed with sharing multi-sport athletes. Missing four starters for several games, mixed with being inconsistent at times, has left us with a 8-8-1 record heading into the draw. I’m a firm believer in playing a tough schedule, which seems to be a theme with my league opponents too, but I would have liked to have seen that reflect in the voting more than it seemed to. Our district is very different than it has been in years past. With the low number of teams, we are looking at only one district champion, but I wholeheartedly believe that champion could be any team on any given day. Our district teams seem to be similar across the board in abilities and everyone seems to have a common theme of being inconsistent at times.”
“My team is finally fully staffed and the girls are excited for tournament. It looks like we could potentially rematch with Lynchburg (yet again) after the first round. While we were hoping to see a league team much later in the tournament, we are prepared for another match up with them. With this being my final year before I hand this program over, there is a bittersweet feeling of going into the tournament season, but I’m excited to make one final run for that district championship.”
The #8 seed in Division V girls soccer is the Peebles Lady Indians, who sport a 7-7-1 record and will will also host a district opener on October 13, welcoming #9 seeded Piketon, a team they handled twice in the regular season, 6-0 and 6-1. A win there give the Lady Indians a trip to the district semis and a match up with a conference foe, the #1 seeded Fairfield lady Lions. That game will be played at Fairfield on October 15.
“Tournament game can always go either way,” says Peebles head coach Kierra Wagner. “I felt like we were place a bit low on the brackets with the season that we had, but that doesn’t change our ultimate goal.”
On the boys brackets, Coach Kirk Bunn and the North Adams Green Devils are the #2 seed in Division V, a reward for their impressive 14-1-1 overall mark. The #2 seed earned the Devils a first-round bye and they will be hosting a district quarterfinal contest on October 16, facing the winner of a first round game between #15 seeded Whiteoak and #18 seeded Rock Hill. A win there will send the North Adams boys to the district semis on October 22 at Zane Trace High School.
“We fell where I thought we would be,” said Coach Bunn. “We shouldn’t have been put ahead of South Webster with them having no losses and we shouldn’t have been any less than number two with our record and quality wins.”
The #10 seed in Division V boys belongs to the Peebles Indians and the Tribe (8-7-0) will open postseason action on October 16 with a district quarterfinal road game at #7 seeded Minford (7-5-2). If the Indians can pull of a win in their opener, they would face a real familiar foe in a district semi, a match up with North Adams with a trip to the district title game on the line.
“I would say it’s pretty fair to us,” said Peebles head coach Stone Crothers. “I was hoping to get an 8-10 seed. It is strange to see us having improved quite a bit record-wise this year compared to last and go down a seed but that just shows the strength of Division V this season. Going in to the draw in 2024 we were 5-8-1 or thereabouts and this season we are 8-7.”
“We’ve played Minford more than any other team in the tournament it seems like since I’ve became head coach so we know it will be a very tough game as they are a great program and really well coached. We still have two regular season games left however so full focus will be on them and trying to get to 10 wins and a winning season this year.”
Finally in Division V the #14 seed will be the 6-5-2 West Union Dragons. The Dragons will open district play on October 15 at 6 p.m. on their hoe field, entertaining the #19 seeded Ripley Blue Jays (0-8-4). A win sends West Union to the quarterfinals on October 16, a trip to face #3 seeded Lucasville Valley (9-1-3).”
“It all comes down to wins,” said Dragons’ head coach Silas Mills. “We lost or tied games that we shouldn’t have because of our lack of focus and played very well against teams that should have beaten us easily. We played Ripley last week and ended in a tie, one of the worst showings by us all year. We will show up and give it everything we have and hope to come out on top. Valley looks to be a very good team so it won’t be an easy game for either team to get by.”
