SC Owls Men’s Soccer success continues with wins over Watertown and York

April 19, 2022
Pregame Captains meeting before the Watertown game. SC Owls Captains L-R Mo Abou Rahma, Ro Ortiz, Colby Boyce.


SC Men’s Soccer has been enjoying a great season so far.  Now District play has begun.  The Owls started with two home games against district rivals Watertown and York.  April 5th  Watertown travelled to Smith County. It had rained all day and the pitch was ready for a splashing good game.  The first half saw the Owls score twice.  Gavin Huddleston took a corner kick which assisted Colby Boyce in the first goal. Then Mo Abou Rahma scored with an assist from Christian Santiago.  The Owls defense held Watertown scoreless through the whole game. In the second half Smith County would add three more goals to the final score of 5-0.  The first goal was by Tanner Pierson, only 30 seconds later Mo Abou Rahma would score with an assist by Gavin Huddleston and the final goal was by Colby Boyce with an assist by Abou Rahma.  


The JV game followed but Watertown would win that one 2-1.  The lone Smith County goal came from Sophomore Eric Richel. Beyond the mud we saw some shining moments of growth from this young JV team. 

SC Owls celebrating Eligio Tolentino’s goal as a family after the York game.


April 7th district opponent York was hosted by the Owls for what was scheduled to be a Varsity game.  This would end up being a game played by everyone and full of memorable moments.  On first glance the final of 9-0 would seem self explanatory but it was so much more. One might expect with a score like that to see York get frustrated and forget about sportsmanship.  York showed up, gave their best and was a great example of grace.  Hats off to the players and the coaching staff. 

On the Owl side of things the score was 5-0 in the first 15 minutes of the game.  The coaches started subbing in JV players and still scored a sixth goal by halftime.  These first six goals were scored in order of: 1. Christian Santiago, assist from Colby Boyce 2. Tanner Pierson, assist from Christian Santiago. 3. Colby Boyce, assist from Tanner Pierson 4. Pierson, assist from Boyce 5. Boyce, assist from Abou Rahma 6. Pierson for the hat trick with assist from Eric Richel.

After the half the Owls needed 3 goals to mercy rule and be done. However, this coaching staff loves the game of Soccer and finds ways to make it allow for the most play and the fairest path.  Smith County Senior Captain Ro Ortiz just happened to have a birthday on this day.  Ortiz is a defender, however, they flipped the field and moved him to Striker and the forward to the back line.  Goal seven took a few tries but ultimately Ortiz would score his goal.  Goal eight was scored by Senior Will Vance and the final goal would come from another Senior defender, Eligio Tolentino with 1:26 on the clock and he was assisted by Will Vance. This game was incredibly fun to watch.  They played almost the entire clock, defenders were able to have the opportunity to score, the JV received quite a bit of playing time, and again, this might not have been such a meaningful game to so many had York not shown the mature demeanor and sportsmanship that they did.

Smith County is now 7-0-1 (2-0 in district) They sit in first place for the region and 5th place overall.  Off to a strong start, they just need to continued to play as #Oneteam and stay healthy.  The Owls now go on the road for district games at Jackson County  and a rematch against Watertown.  This is an exciting team with a lot of skill, we hope you will come out and support them. (Photos and article submitted by Vivian Schaffers.)