By Katie Barker
Carter County Times
The East and West Carter High School soccer teams came together in their cross-county rivalry match to compete and support a good cause; cancer awareness. Each year the two teams play their county rivalry game in Grayson and honor one person in Carter County who has been diagnosed with cancer.
This year’s recipient is Amilya Nelson, a 5th grader at Prichard Elementary. Amilya has been diagnosed with a rare brain tumor called DIPG and is currently undergoing treatment in Lexington. All proceeds from the game will go to Amilya and her family to help support them.
The Lady Raiders took on the Lady Comets for the first matchup of the night where the Lady Raiders would come away with a 7-1 win. East Carter was dominant throughout the whole game making smart passes and moving into space to open up scoring opportunities. Raider Addison Tiller led the defense and kept the Lady Comets at bay. Kaylee Hollingsworth however was able to dribble it past the defense and passed the ball over to Sophie Martin to score the Lady Comets lone goal of the game.
The Lady Comets came back out in the second half and tried to keep the Raiders away but goalkeeper Sydney Cecil, with 16 saves on the night, wasn’t going to let it happen so easily. Cecil and Brooklyn Wilburn led the defense to slow down the Lady Raiders. The Lady Raiders found the holes in the defense though, scoring three more goals in the second half. The Lady Raiders finished strong, winning the game 7-1.
The boys game was just as exciting with the Raiders starting the game strong with a goal from Riley Steele three minutes into the game. This set off an explosion for the Raiders, scoring another seven goals in the first half alone. The Comets just couldn’t keep up with the Raiders’ explosiveness. They tried to counteract it, but the East defense held up strong keeping the Comets away.
The Comets were able to score one goal by Jared Williams with seconds left in the first half. Williams dribbled around the defense and shot towards the upper corner of the net ending the first half. The Raiders weren’t satisfied though and scored the final goal of the game from Caden Tussey. Tussey received the ball and dribbled around the defense shooting the ball into the back of the net winning the game 9-1
East Carter and West Carter start their district play this week. The Lady Comets and Lady Raiders played yesterday, October 8, and the boys played October 7 in the first round of districts.
Contact the writer at news@cartercountytimes.com
