In a fast-paced, end-to-end contest to avoid AHSAA playoff elimination on Saturday night, the Russellville High School varsity boys’ soccer team fell to the Guntersville High School Wildcats 3-0 in the quarterfinal round at Golden Tiger Stadium.
Russellville, the Class 5A Section 15 champions, were defeated by Guntersville after the Wildcats, the No. 1 ranked team in 5A for the last five weeks, scored one goal in the first half and then tacked on two more in the second half.
“Guntersville is a really, really good team—the top ranked team in the state,” Russellville head coach Trey Stanford said. “They’ve got size, they’re really fast. They’ve got one of the best strikers in the state, one of the best midfielders in the state, and about eight seniors that have been playing together for the last four years.
“We knew going in it was going to be a really tough game and we would have to play extremely well,” he added. “It just didn’t fall our way.”
The Golden Tigers, who managed three shots on goal in the game, competed well as the two sides maintained around 50 percent possession, but the hosts were unable to convert on their opportunities.
“I thought we played pretty well in the first half,” Stanford said. “We had several opportunities—a couple of clear cut chances—to score, but we just couldn’t get them to fall.”
Guntersville scored its first goal in the 30th minute after a corner, initially punched out by RHS goalkeeper Miguel Alonzo, pinged around in the box and found the foot of one Wildcat player who slotted home.
“We just had a little mental lapse right there towards the end of the first half,” Stanford said. “When you do that against a team like Guntersville, they usually punish you for it.”
Down 1-0 at the intermission, Russellville looked for an equalizer in the second half, mainly by attempting to get Hailezgy Solomon or senior striker Manny Martinez onto the end of a through ball. Unfortunately for the Golden Tigers, all of their attempts on target found the hands of the opposing goalkeeper instead of the back of the net.
The visitors, in the 49th and 58th minutes, scored more goals and more or less put the match out of reach for Russellville, who struggled to put Guntersville on the backfoot.
Stanford said the support from the large contingent of Golden Tiger faithful kept the team in it when they went down.
“It was very intense. The atmosphere was incredible,” he said. “The stadium was jam packed and we had a lot of people there cheering us on.”
Russellville, in its ninth season under head coach Trey Stanford, ends its campaign in the quarterfinals for the second straight season.
It was a year in which the Golden Tigers were plagued with injuries from start to finish, Stanford said, but he was proud of how his team stepped up and continued the fight all season.
“It was an injury-filled year. I think at one point we had nine guys on the varsity team all out hurt,” he said. “We haven’t changed much of what we’ve done over the last nine seasons. I think it’s one of those years where you can’t get everything to fall your way. I feel like we just had some bad luck.
“As a coach it’s my responsibility to do my due diligence, so we’re going to reevaluate what we’re doing and see if we need to change anything so that we’re not putting the players in bad situations when it comes to injuries,” he added.
“Because of the injuries we had some really young players that had to step up this season and play in some really big games for us. During the Florence tournament this year, I think we had five seventh and eighth graders playing, and that tournament was against some really, really good teams. The young guys did a great job filling in and helping us along until we could get healthy again.”
The Golden Tigers finish the year with five straight section titles and an 8-6-3 record.
Even though RHS didn’t achieve its ultimate goal of making it to the finals and winning a championship this season, Stanford is optimistic that their time is coming.
“We’re young and we’ve got a lot of young kids coming back. A lot of talented seventh and eighth graders are coming up,” he said. “In the future I believe we have a great shot to be really, really good. I think with our young guys, for the next three years, we have a good chance at being deep in the playoffs and making a run at the finals.
“Eventually we’re going to get back there and we’re going to win it all, but we’ve got to have all of our community on board,” Stanford said. “We’ve got to have all our kids on board, and we’ve all got to be pushing for the same goal which is Russellville.
“This year was humbling, but I’m excited for the future. If we can get it together the next few years and have everyone—everyone in this community that loves Russellville soccer—pulling in the same direction, we’ll get there. We’ll get over that hump.”
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