YMS 3, Asheville Christian 1

The Cougars made long road trip to Swannanoa to take on ACA and came away winners 3-1.

Yancey started rather slow and were kept on their heels somewhat by a pressing ACA squad who moved with quickness and sharp passing. However, ACA was never able to mount a serious threat as the back line of Tyler Byrd, Martine and Tristan, with Tim playing in front of them, kept the ball out of our box.

The Cougars opened the scoring when Martine rushed up to take a free kick, about 10 yards inside the Yancey half. The ball went just over the head of a tall ACA defender, who had been heading away every long ball, and fell at the feet of Gabriel who raced ahead and beat the keeper to make give Yancey a 1-0 lead.

The Cougars were more focussed for the next 15 minutes and made numerous runs at the ACA box. Luke crashed the goal on a Yancey corner and just missed adding to his goal total. Likewise the ACA keeper made several good saves. The Cougars took their slim lead into the half.

The second half started with Yancey dominating possession and Eduardo driving across the top of the Asheville box to launch a rocket into the far corner to give Yancey a 2-0 lead.

ACA pressed hard, pushing the ball up the wings and making good, long, diagonal passes. Several times, Yancey defenders were beaten and committed lazy, stupid fouls resulting in several free kicks and a yellow card for Martine. They Yancey wall held up several times and denied Asheville a goal.

About midway through the second, an Asheville striker got on the end of an excellent through ball, got behind Martine, and beat Nester, who remained standing on the goal line. Nester needs to learn to come out on the shooter on breakaways.

Several times in the second half, I was struck by two of the Yancey palyers' reluctance to pass the ball. They seemed only interested in carrying the ball as far as they could. I hope next year, in high school, they have this predisposition drilled out of them.

In the last 5 minutes, Yancey pushed hard and Tim got on the end of a loose ball about 20 yards out and stroked a beautiful side footed shot into the far corner to give Yancey a comfortable 3-1 lead.

Yancey is 7-2-2 and will face Apple Valley, in Hendersonville, in the season finale this Wednesday.

Excellent job Cougars!