Gallery by Tina Laney
Greenbrier East boys soccer head coach Lucas Lemine stressed prior to the season that wins against sectional foes would be a premium this year.
Wednesday evening the first of those three teams arrived in Fairlea when Oak Hill came looking to steal a road victory.
The Spartans were having none of it.
Riding a first-half hat trick from senior Luke Dolin and taking full advantage of Oak Hill’s youth and inexperience, Greenbrier East blitzed the visitors 7-0.
“The kids were focused and ready to play. They knew the importance of it and we talked about it a lot. We also knew they lost a lot (of players),” Greenbrier East head coach Lucas Lemine said. “That is kind of hard to recover from when you lose as many people as they did. So, I have to give a lot of credit to them in what they are trying to rebuild.”
With his team controlling the majority of the possessions, Dolin hammered home two goals within the span of a minute to put the Red Devils in a jam midway through the first half.
“Luke played phenomenal. His movement was phenomenal. The first game he had two assists and he didn’t have many opportunities on goal. Tonight they played a really high line and everybody is always looking at Chase (Mizia). They kind of forget about Luke and he is sneaky fast. When he gets the chances to be in the box, he has to finish those and he did tonight.”
Carter Tolliver found Dolin for the first goal with just over 22 minutes to play in the first half before a cross from Mizia led to the second goal.
Dolin made it three straight with nine minutes to play before the break when Bobby Beverage slid a ball through the defenders for a 3-0 lead.
Cayden Midkiff made it a 4-0 advantage just before halftime when he scored on a loose ball in front of the net off a direct kick.
“In soccer, if you can’t do the simple things well, you are going to lose,” Oak Hill head coach Lenny Keaveny said. “If you don’t do the easy things well, you are going to lose big. Our guys were not moving when someone else had the ball to create an attack. When we were defending, we were not dictating what they had to do. They were winning every 50-50 ball tonight and the bottom line is we didn’t show up. You learn more from losing than winning, so we will see what we do with the lesson we are getting tonight.”
Second half goals from Ryan Wagner, freshman Andrew Holt and all-stater Adam Seams rounded out the scoring. Holt scored on Tolliver’s second assist of the game and Seams scored on an assist from Noah Edwards.
Lemine felt prior to the season that his team would be better defensively this year and so far that has played out with East staying clean for the second match in a row.
“When you have Adam back there, he is not only one of the top 5 players in the state, he makes everybody else way better. You have so much more confidence when you play with him,” Lemine said.
After starting the last two seasons like a house of fire, only to see things end on a sour note with tough sectional losses, Lemine is keeping everything in perspective.
“Historically we have started fast and hit rock bottom at the end because we have played so well so fast,” Lemine said. “Last year we started out with nine wins and a tie and we know what happened at the end of the season. I think these kids know that too and they are not going to let that happen again. You always have things to improve.”
Greenbrier East (2-0) travels to Parkersburg Saturday before battling sectional foe Princeton on the road the following Thursday.
Oak Hill (2-2) hosts Princeton on Tuesday.
