Gallery by Heather Belcher
The Hurricane boys soccer team ended the 2023 soccer season in the state championship game at Paul Cline Stadium in Beckley.
Thursday night the Redskins were back at the YMCA Paul Cline Memorial Youth Sports Complex, with a different result.
A year ago Hurricane dropped a 1-0 decision to George Washington, but this time the Redskins were on the winning side of a 2-nil decision in the season opener against Beckley.
“We finished the season last year in the state championship and now our first game is back here,” Hurricane head coach Kent Bailey said. “It is a really nice facility down here. (Beckley) has a great coach and a great team. We are happy to be back in Beckley and hopefully we are back at the end of the year.”
The result Thursday night boiled down to the team that took advantage of its chances.
Beckley had the larger number of tries, but the visitors were able to get a quality result out of their fewer opportunities.
The only shot on goal in the first half belonged to Hurricane in the 35th minute. Senior Kellon Schmidt found himself on the end of a direct kick which he knocked into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead which stood at the break.
“We made a couple of series of mistakes at multiple times that cost us dearly. The first half we handled the game very well. We didn’t create any clear chances, but we were just there,” Beckley head coach Steve Laraba said. “We talked about what they were going to create goal scoring chances from and what we needed to not do. We did the things that we shouldn’t have done.”
The Redskins then doubled the lead on another direct kick, just two minutes into the second half. Harris Coulter launched a try from roughly 30 yards out that curled inside the back post for the 2-0 advantage.
“It was just a good free kick. I am not sure if it was his intent. Either way he hit it well,” Laraba said about Coulter’s blast. “The first one we just let a guy get away and he got a good touch on the ball.”
After no shots on goal in the opening 40 minutes, the Flying Eagles created five in the second half, but could not beat Hurricane keeper Seth Casto.
“He played very, very well. We had a good opportunity in the first half to score that we didn’t take advantage of, Laraba said. “Then we had a really good one in the second half after we gave up that goal early. We didn’t score that and then we had one late that we couldn’t convert. I think some things got rushed and we had a couple of decisions that we could have made differently, but the effort was there.”
Adding to the frustrations for Beckley was the large number of corner kicks that did not seem to create a quality chance. The Flying Eagles had 11 corners, while Hurricane managed three.
“We have been working on them. We really have been. It is a thing where we were off on a couple of things and they don’t come off well,” Laraba said. “We are not a large team as far as height is concerned. Hurricane had some guys in there with really good size and the keeper was massive. It is hard to capitalize on those.”
Bailey talked about the play of his keeper who is in his first season between the posts.
“We are very happy to have the clean sheet. (Beckley) pushed the numbers up the field, but we are very happy that we kept the clean sheet,” Bailey said. “Seth played center-back for us last year and we moved him back to goal this year. He is a big body and he has been performing great for us. He is tough to get around.”
Naturally Laraba had envisioned a different result and a better performance to open the season.
“It is disappointing because we are a better team than we showed, but we are also very young. I think that showed at times,” Laraba said. “We have to learn how to manage emotions and how to play against players that are a few years older than us. Hurricane is a good team. We will learn from it and move on.”
It gets no easier for Beckley who travels north Saturday to face Morgantown in another top tier showdown.
“I told somebody earlier that we could be 2-0 after this weekend and I would be happy and not surprised,” Laraba explained. “I also said we could be 0-2 and I wouldn’t be happy and I wouldn’t be surprised. We just have some work to do and I know the guys can do it.”
