Soccer stomps Sipsey Valley

Published 10:06 pm Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Demopolis' Ryan Reed (middle) scored the final goal of a 10-0 win over Sipsey Valley.

Demopolis (6-3, 1-1) put together the first 10-0 mercy rule in team history Tuesday when it downed upstart Sipsey Valley at home.

The Tigers scored eight goals in the first half alone, getting the opening score within the first minute of play when junior Jake Flowers connected on an unassisted strike. The next three scores came off the foot of junior Kevan Momenpour. One of those efforts was unassisted while senior Jarvis Lawson provide help on one and junior Mitch McPherson aided the other.

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Senior Jacob Roemen then connected on a long score from 30 yards out to push the lead to 5-0. Minutes later, McPherson put the ball in the net from a similar distance to stretch the advantage to 6-0.

Flowers scored another unassisted goal to up the lead to 7-0 before Tyler Overstreet helped freshman Oscar Valdivia to the Tigers’ eighth goal of the contest.

The second half saw the teams play to a stalemate for several minutes before Osvaldo Ayala ran down the left sideline to corral a loose ball deep in Sipsey territory. Ayala quickly sent a pass to eighth-grader Austin Brooks who bent the ball over the Sipsey Valley goalkeeper and into the top right hand corner of the net.

Junior Ryan Reed, who had shifted from defense only moments earlier, pushed the ball up the right side and connected on the walk-off goal to hand Demopolis its first 10-goal win. The Tigers connected on 10 of their 13 shots in the game.

Demopolis head coach Peter Keen anticipated an easy road for his Tigers and utilized the contest to work in a new formation in preparation for Friday’s region contest at powerhouse Briarwood Christian.

“With a team like Briarwood, you can’t go your standard 4-4-2,” Keen said. “We changed up formation for that game.”

Keen also pointed to the extensive playing time his reserves got against Sipsey Valley as a clear positive in view of the future.

“It’s building on the future,” he said. “It’s giving them playing time and experience for what is to come.”

The win followed up a Friday contest in which the team went on the road to pick up its first region win of the season with a 3-0 shutout of Pleasant Grove.

“We did very well,” Keen said. “We were playing in a monster wind. We just had some unlucky events. We know what the score should have been.”

That contest saw Cameron Fendley score one goal in the first half and add another in the second to go along with Roemen’s first half score.

The Tigers travel to Briarwood Friday for a contest Keen believes could set his team up for a strong season.

“If we can beat Briarwood, we’re on our way to a great season,” Keen said.