Smith County High School Owls Soccer finished the regular season with a record of 9-2-2, which included winning the Smoky Mountain Cup at Gatlinburg. This is one of the most resilient groups we have seen, every obstacle was a training ground and they learned each lesson and became stronger. It was not a bad season for a first year coach and Coach Wes Kemp didn’t stop there.
The Owls finished first in the District which led to them playing Cannon County in the District Semi-final on May 7th. The other side of the district semi-final was Jackson County vs York Institute. Jackson County won 1-0 which advanced them to the Championship game. Then Smith County won 7-0 against Cannon County, sending them forward. Jarrain Smith scored the first two goals with assists from Abi Martinez on both. The third goal came from Blake Baird assisted by Aldrin Jimenez and they would finish the half with Jimenez scoring the 4th goal with an assist from Baird. The second half started with Blake Baird scoring with an assist from Aldrin Jimenez. Jimenez scored with an assist from Jarrain Smith. The punctuation mark came from Santos Damian, his first goal as an Owl, assisted by Gavin Kemp. The Goalkeeping duo of James Bunn and Jacob Vandebiezen kept a clean sheet in the win.
The Championship game was to be played at Jackson County but the storms caused problems with the Cannon County venue and the game was set forFriday May 10th. However, extenuating circumstances caused the game to be canceled with no time to make it up. Going off of the stats from the tournament it was Smith County who would be crowned Champions.
Region play starts on Tuesday May 14th. Smith County will play at home vs the loser of Liberty Creek and Whitehouse Heritage. Jackson County will travel to the winner of that game.
Congratulations to the Owls, Coach Kemp and Coach Bussell for all of the accomplishments this far. Keep up the great teamwork!
Article and photo submitted by Vivian Schaffers
