GATLINBURG – Chuckey-Doak was outmatched on Thursday night and suffered a disappointing 7-0 loss to Gatlinburg-Pittman in the Region 1-1A Championship.
“We didn’t focus. We started bad from the first kickoff. We just weren’t there. They did a great job obviously. They have a great team. We were thinking after playing them two times we could match up a little better. Obviously, we were outmatched today and we weren’t ready for it. It’s just one of those things,” Black Knights Head Coach Steve Neesen said.
Last night was definitely not the same game as last week. They started out similar and ended with the same result, but Chuckey-Doak found very little success on offense. The Black Knights struggled to put together runs and create shots on offense and let GP have way too many shots on defense.
Although last night’s loss was tough to stomach, the more important game is still to come. Chuckey-Doak will travel to Chattanooga for a sectionals game with Chattanooga School for Liberal Arts on Saturday with a chance to make the Class A State Tournament.
“That is exciting. Even though we wanted to win this game, it is what it is. We’ll play Saturday and see if we can get into the State Tournament,” Neesen said.
Gatlinburg-Pittman wasted no time striking first. Sebastian Mogollon scored 47 seconds in to take a quick 1-0 lead. Kevin Escalante scored next in the 7th minute to make it 2-0 and Cristofer Lanza scored in the 11th minute to extend the lead to 3-0.
After giving up three quick goals in the first 11 minutes Chuckey-Doak’s defense settled in and didn’t allow GP to score until the very end of the half.
Kevin Lanza scored a last chance goal with 2 seconds left to send Chuckey-Doak into the half trailing 4-0.
The Highlanders scored quickly again in back-to-back minutes. Escalante scored in the 49th minute and Jahime Beaton followed that up with a backdoor goal in the 50th minute. Chuckey-Doak trailed 6-0.
Gatlinburg-Pittman scored in the final minute of the second half also, but it technically wasn’t them who scored. To make matters worse it seemed as if Chuckey-Doak scored an own goal to end the match.
The Black Knights struggled all match long and suffered a 7-0 loss in Thursday’s Region 1-1A Championship.
Chuckey-Doak will travel to play CSLA on Saturday in the sectionals round with a trip to the State Tournament on the line.
“They have a good team. Playing Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg will prepare you for any of these teams. We’ll see what happens. Anything is possible,” Coach Neesen stated.
