Averett men’s soccer rolls to first ever USA South tournament win

Averett freshman forward Levi Earl happened to be in the perfect position late in the first half. A shot by Tuukka Myyra bounced off the left post and bounced perfectly to Earl, who took his time to set the ball and put it in the net to tie the game with Greensboro College.

Averett’s first time hosting a USA South Conference tournament game was a memorable one, as the fourth-seeded Cougars rolled to a 6-2 shellacking of fifth-seeded Greensboro at the Cougar Den in Danville, securing the first ever victory for Averett in the USA South Conference tournament.

The Cougars advance to play USA South top-seed Christopher Newport on Friday at 5 p.m. at the Smith River Sports Complex in Martinsville. It is the second time Averett (10-7-1) has played in the tournament semifinals, the first time coming in 2000 when the top four teams participated in the conference tournament.

“It just came over to me. I was in shock, I thought it was going in, but I just knew where I needed to put the ball and I put it there,” Earl said. “We knew where we needed to put the ball in how their defense worked.”

Earl finished with two goals and as assist as Averett completely overpowered Greensboro (4-10-2) over the final 80 minutes. The freshman’s second goal came less than 5 minutes into the second half and gave Averett its first lead of the game. Earl connected on a shot from about 40 yards out that snuck past Mazi Heydary, who replaced starting keeper Chad Adams after he allowed two goals and recorded five saves for Greensboro.

The Pride scored twice within the span of 80 seconds as David Andreski and Richard Page were able to connect on goals to put Greensboro up 2-0 before 10 minutes had elapsed.

“I just think we changed our game plan,” Greensboro coach Giovanni Vlahos said. “We went up by two goals and we changed it. It wasn’t anything different that they were doing, we just did something different that we shouldn’t have done.”

Averett keeper Nate Barker settled down and did not allow a goal the remainder of the game, finishing with 10 saves.

The barrage of goals did not stop for Averett as Samuli Markkanen took a centering pass from Leslie Pappoe and drilled a shot past Heydary for a 5-2 Cougars’ cushion. The Pride brought in Jacob Wolf as the team’s third keeper of the game, but Jonathan Gustafsson was able to sneak a shot past Wolf with a little less than 2 minutes left in the game for the final score.

Earl has scored 10 times this season and Myyra added two assists to take the team lead with seven on the season. John Thrower scored the Cougars’ first goal of the game after collecting a corner kick from Myyra and one-timing it past Adams.

“We’ve said all year the sky’s the limit for this team, even though they’re young,” Averett coach Ed Goodhines said. “The first 15 minutes showed our youth — a little timid, playoff game, whatnot, something that they’re not used to. They kept at it and when we got that first one, I knew there was no doubt that we were coming back. To come back 6-2, I’m extremely proud of, didn’t expect that. It was a total team effort and I mean a total team effort.”

Averett 6, Greensboro 2
Greensboro2 0 – 2
Averett 2 4 – 6
Scoring: David Andreski (G) unassisted 8:34; Richard Page (G) unassisted 9:56; John Thrower (A) assisted by Tuukka Myyra 18:17; Levi Earl (A) assisted by Tuukka Myyra 34:51; Levi Earl (A) unassisted 50:11; Timi Heikkonen (A) assisted by Levi Earl 56:15; Samuli Markkanen (A) assisted by Leslie Pappoe 71:12; Jonathan Gustafsson (A) assisted by Eduardo Nava 88:27. Saves: Chad Adams (G) 5, Mazi Heydary (G) 0, Jacob Wolf (G) 0, Team (G) 1; Nate Barker (A) 10, Team 2. Yellow Cards: Michael Giordano (G) 63:33; Levi Earl (A) 67:43; Oscar Sellhed (G) 81:18.
Records: Greensboro 4-10-2; Averett 10-7-1.