Boyd-Buchanan Soccer Stays Unbeaten With Win Over McCallie

Ingram's Hat Trick Leads Bucs To 3-2 Victory

  • Tuesday, May 3, 2016
  • Jaime Barrett

The atmosphere on and around the Boyd-Buchanan soccer field Tuesday night resembled that of a high-stakes postseason match, but neither titles nor elimination were on the line in the Buccaneers’ non-conference, regular-season finale against McCallie.


What the Bucs were playing for, however, was an opportunity to finish an unbeaten regular season, a feat they accomplished by holding on for a 3-2 win over the nationally-ranked Blue Tornado.


“That’s great, but we don’t put a whole lot of stock in it,” Bucs’ coach Dustin Walker said after his team won its 12th match of the season against no losses and one tie.

“That record is done. It ends tonight, and a new record starts with the district tournament.


“We’re thankful for the opportunity to play McCallie. (Coach Chris Cushenbery) is doing such a great job with them. They’re so dangerous. The reason we schedule them right before the district tournament is for this type of game and this type of atmosphere.”


Boyd-Buchanan and McCallie have been two of the area’s top teams throughout this season. The Bucs are currently ranked No. 5 in the state’s Class A/AA poll, while the Blue Tornado sit atop the state’s Division II-AA rankings, and have earned a top 10 MaxPreps national ranking with a 10-2-3 record against a highly competitive schedule.


But for the second consecutive match, McCallie fell behind on an early goal, this time by Boyd-Buchanan’s David Ingram on a ball from John Beasley in the opening minute.


“This is the second game in a row where we’ve given up a goal in the first minute,” Cushenbery said. “It’s tough. We’ve got to start faster. We dominated the first half, but we knew their gameplan was to get long throws in and convert their chances, and they executed what they were trying to do.”


McCallie responded with several dangerous scoring opportunities around the 10-minute mark, including a header saved by Bucs’ keeper Isaac Antwine. With 25:24 remaining in the opening period, Antwine got a foot on a shot from Cameron Bett, but Will McGregor was there to follow for the equalizer.


The Blue Tornado had a number of chances at a go-ahead goal in the remainder of the first half, including several from close range, but with 6:56 on the clock, Beasley and Ingram connected again to put Boyd-Buchanan up 2-1.


“The shot total was 30 to five in our advantage,” Cushenbery said. “I don’t know how many point-blank chances we had. We had opportunities to win the game, but we’ve got to get more disciplined. We didn’t play very disciplined, but those games happen. And Dustin does a great job with his guys, and they were hyped up tonight. Our kids don’t quite understand yet that we get everyone’s best shot. They’re going to get that level of intensity and focus from every single opponent.”


Antwine saved several more Blue Tornado shots in the final minutes of the first half to preserve the lead for his team at the break.


“Isaac was fantastic for us, especially in the first half,” Walker said. “He came up so big. It was amazing.”


Three minutes into the second period, the Bucs had a near-goal waved off due to an offside call, but four minutes later, their work in the box resulted in a penalty kick that Ingram sent in to complete the hat trick. But shortly after Boyd-Buchanan took the 3-1 lead, a red card sent Ingram off the field following a hard collision with McCallie center back Noah Tremain.


Tremain, already a valuable member of the Blue Tornado squad as an eighth-grader, left with a probable concussion.


“He’s a great player, and losing him definitely hurt,” Cushenbery said. “He’s a competitor who really helps us in the back. Noah is just unbelievably tough. He attacks the ball and he’s our long-throw guy, so it was tough to lose that.”


Playing with just 10 players on the field for the final 32 minutes, the Bucs held on with several more stops from Antwine. Bett finished a ball for McCallie with 14.4 seconds left on the clock, but by then the Bucs’ fans were already celebrating the end to an impressive regular season.


“The two things you didn’t want to see tonight were their kid getting hurt and us getting the red card,” Walker said. “In the game of soccer, you hate for that to happen to anybody. But this is a good win. We got a lot of good lessons from tonight, like how to play a man down for 32 minutes. That wasn’t easy, especially against a team like McCallie.


“What we’ve been doing all season is trying to get better every time, and playing for each other. That’s what our guys do; they play for each other. They proved that tonight when we got down to 10 men.”


Boyd-Buchanan will have to play without Ingram when it opens District 5-A/AA tournament play Thursday at home against Sequoyah at 6 p.m. McCallie has one Division II Mid-East Region match remaining, against Pope John Paul II on Saturday, and a win would clinch the No. 1 seeding and an automatic spot in the state quarterfinals for the Blue Tornado.


(E-mail Jaime Barrett at jaimenbarrett@gmail.com)


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