Cavs Advance to District Semis

The Cavs (11-3-4) generated several chances early, but the attack had difficulty finding the back of the net. Chris Bruneau had two shots strike the post, and a Taylor Richardson effort went just over the crossbar in the 22nd minute. Eventually, the Cavalier front line broke through, as a Sam Liska cross hit the hand of an Oakland defender, earning CHS a penalty kick. Brett Sloan hammered home the kick in the 35th minute to give the Cavs a 1-0 lead.

Three minutes later, Liska located Richardson, who navigated the ball past a Patriot defender before sending the ball past the OHS keeper to increase Cookeville's lead to 2-0. The Cavaliers got a third goal just seconds before the halftime whistle, as Richardson assisted David Jiang, who poked the ball into the net to give the home team a 3-0 lead heading into the half.

In the second half, it was Oakland who drew first blood, earning a penalty kick in the 45th minute and knocking it home to cut the Cavalier lead to 3-1. But the Cavaliers put the game away soon after, as Brendan Clark played a ball to Roger Ucles, who sent a 35-yard laser into the goal to increase the score to 4-1 in the 56th minute. Cookeville rounded out the scoring in the 76th minute as Lane Kelly found Ben Bucher, who drilled a shot into the Patriot goal to bring the score to 5-1, which became the final score just minutes later.

"We didn't come ready to play today," said CHS coach Grant Kelly. "We were looking ahead toward tomorrow's big matchup against Riverdale, and we started out complacent and could not get our shots on frame. Eventually, the boys settled down and things opened up, and we were able to score some goals. However, if we are to advance out of the district, we must clean things up and play better."

The Cavaliers attempted 16 shots on goal, and goalkeepers Richie Graves and Jared Garrett combined to record 3 saves.

Cookeville returns to action on Tuesday as they travel to Siegel High School to face Riverdale in the semifinals of the District 7-AAA tournament. The match pits eighth-ranked Cookeville against ninth-ranked Riverdale, the second ranked squad the Cavaliers will have faced in five days. The winner earns a berth in the Region 4-AAA tournament, while the loser's season comes to a close. Game time is at 8:00 P.M.