By Michael Lindsay
Thursday’s District 6/AA boys soccer championship game will feature familiar faces as the Cumberland County Jets have qualified for their fourth consecutive title game following Tuesday’s 2-0 victory over Livingston Academy in the semifinals.
“It’s an expectation,” said Cumberland County head coach Cub Whitson. “It’s where we want to be and where I think we should be no matter what. People expect us to have down years and not be as good as I feel like we are, and that’s fuel to keep getting us back here year after year.”
Cumberland County’s semifinal victory over Livingston didn’t come without struggle.
“We have to be happy with the win and getting through, but man it was a sloppy game,” Whitson said. “They (Livingston) were being physical and doing a good job of stopping our flow. We didn’t do a good job of creating our own flow. We were choppy and were forcing some stuff. Livingston is an extremely hard-working team and they definitely matched our intensity.”
Cumberland County looked poised to run away with a victory early as Jet freshman Nikki Azzani found the back of the net off a Wyatt Davis pass to give CCHS a 1-0 lead less than 5 minutes into the game.
Both defenses locked in from there as neither team would score for the final 35:08 of the first half, leaving Cumberland County with a 1-0 halftime advantage.
The scoreless trend continued deep into the second half as neither team scored through the first 35 minutes of the period.
The Jets put the game on ice with less than 3 minutes remaining as Tyler Phillips scored Cumberland County’s second goal of the evening to lock up the 2-0 victory.
“The first five and last five minutes of each half are the most dangerous moments; a lot of goals get scored,” Whitson said. “We scored in the first five minutes and the last five. We were ready to play, but maybe the wet field conditions got to us. It’s no excuse, but we have to be mentally tougher than that.”
Tuesday’s shutout was Cumberland County’s 7th of the season.
“The defenders played really well; the communication has been good,” Whitson said. “Defense wins games and championships, and that’s what we’re hanging our hat on.”
Cumberland County advances to face DeKalb County in Thursday’s championship game in Sparta. The Jets swept the Tigers this season, 3-1 and 1-0.
“We have to recover and get our legs back underneath us,” Whitson said. “We have to pay more attention to detail. We might’ve been looking ahead. DeKalb will be very tough Thursday and we better be ready.”
