North Boys & Girls kick South in All-Star Soccer
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (ahsaa.com) – The North girls beat the South 3-2 and the North boys won 4-2 Tuesday night to sweep the AHSAA North-South All-Star Soccer matches at Emory Folmar Soccer Complex. The Alabama High School Athletic Directors & Coaches Association hosts the AHSAA North-South competition.
The North, coached by Albertville’s Julie Little and Indian Springs’ Hunter Gray, fell behind 2-1 in the girls’ contest midway through the second half but rallied with two goals just 3 ½ minute apart from 62:48 to 66:29 to pull out the win.
North MVP Walker Poe of Mountain Brook gave her team a quick lead scoring the match’s first goal on an unassisted kick just 33 seconds into the game. Mallory Messer of St. Paul’s Episcopal tied the match with a goal at 8:27. Maggie Chambers of Montgomery Academy got the assist. Chambers, the South MVP, gave the South the lead 2-1 at 58:50 in the second half on an assist from Cameryn Rogers of Prattville.
The North tied the contest at 2-2 in unlikely fashion when the South planted the ball in its own goal just four minutes later. Jordan Richmond of Holy Spirit Catholic got the game-winning corner kick to seal the win as the North improved to 12-2-1 in the annual series.
South goalkeeper Dora Eskridge of Montgomery Academy had two saves and Alyssa Vess of Oak Mountain had five saves for the North.
South coaches were Analyn Coker of Trinity Presbyterian and Dennis Jones of Smiths Station.
North Boys 4, South 2
North MVP Jose Moreno of Tanner scored two goals, one in each half, as the North posted its 10th win in the all-star series. The South has four wins and the two squads have had one tie in the annual competition since 1998.
Cole Gerding of Cullman opened the scoring at 7:32 of the first half with an unassisted goal for the North. Cole Grogan of Benjamin Russell tied the match with an unassisted goal of his own at 13:15, but Moreno’s first goal at 32:24 put the North ahead for good. Cole Williams of Hoover got the assist. Kennedy Davis of Oak Mountain added an unassisted goal early in the second half, and Moreno scored on a feed from Helena’s Gaskins at 65 minutes to ice the win for coaches Casey Harbin of Cullman and Matt Hall of Spain Park.
Noah Harrelson of St. Paul’s Episcopal scored the South’s final goal just 14 seconds before the match concluded.
North goalkeepers Kyle Oswalt of Guntersville and Seth Torman of Pelham had four and two saves, respectively. The South, coached by Joe Nelson of Northview and Wilfredo Navidad of Montgomery Academy, got strong goal play from Michael Kelly of Montgomery Academy and Houston Barnett of Citronelle. Each had four saves.
