Smoky Mountain pulls away from halftime tie for victory over West

Israel Vargas scored twice to pace the Mustangs (5-1).

A Falcon player was hit with a red card late in the first half forcing his team to play a man down the rest of the way.

"It was a hard-fought game," Coach Dolphus Brown said. "It was a sweet win for us. They're a quality team."

SM played without defenseman Nicholas McDonald, who was sidelined with a knee injury.

"We moved some people around," Brown said. "I feel like we're starting to jell as a team."

The Mustangs had a 21-14 advantage in shots. Will Peoples made eight saves for SM, and Chris Podlesnky had nine for West.

The Mustangs took the lead for good just 2:40 into the second half. Michael Tennant made a cross pass to the left of the goal to Vargas. The keeper came out, but Vargas took the ball away from him and scored putting SM up 3-2.

That's how it stayed until Cory Carpenter's penalty kick at the 76:20 mark. The opportunity came after Vargas was taken down in the box.

Although the Mustangs had a man advantage throughout the second half, Brown knew the win wouldn't come easily.

"We knew they were really going to try to step it up," he said of the Falcons. "I challenged our guys at halftime. I told them we need to play like we're a man down."

He said the players responded to the challenge.

West opened the scoring four minutes into the contest on a breakaway by Andrew Bauman. Brown said a defensive breakdown in the midfield led to the goal. Stephen Brown tied it 1-1 a minute and a half later. The West keeper stopped a shot, but the ball rolled away from him just enough for Brown to slide into the ball and kick it in from six yards out.

West regained the lead at the 21:20 mark with Bauman again scoring. This time it was the Falcons who took advantage of a misplay by the keeper.

The Mustangs tied it 2-2 at the 28:45 mark with Vargas scoring off an assist from Josh Fuller. He made a cross pass from the right wing to Vargas, who one-touched it into the net.

West had a chance to go back in front some three minutes later, but Peoples stopped a penalty kick.

"We came back twice," Brown said. "I've had a team or two that just couldn't come back."

The Falcons were assessed five yellow cards in addition to the red. SM had just one yellow card.

The coach said the Mustangs played well as a team. He singled out Vargas, Jimmy Welch, Chris Tennant, Matt Taylor and Dan White for their play.

The Mustang JVs (1-2) got into the scoring column for the first time this year in a 3-2 win. They rallied from a 2-1 halftime deficit.

Eric McManus scored the game-winner on a penalty kick with just 20 seconds left. Will West also scored in the second half with David White scoring in the first half. The goals by West and White came on deflections from the keeper.

SM goalie Caleb Corwin is out indefinitely with an ankle injury, and the backup goalie also wasn't available. Coach Chris Griffin said he conducted a "mini tryout" for keeper before the game, and Willie Mojica won the start. Griffin said he did a "wonderful job" for having never played the position before.

"The team never gave up," Griffin said. "They showed a lot of heart."

Back to Sports: 09/07/00.