Eastside striker Tyrik Francis scored a hat trick and goalies Andres Sarmiento and Brain Worton held the Henry County Warhawks to one goal, as the Eagles varsity boys soccer team overpowered the Warhawks 8-1 in a non-region match on Senior Night Tuesday at Sharp Stadium in Covington.
Eastside improved to 8-5 on the season with the victory, while Henry County dropped to 2-9 in its 2014 campaign.
“We played pretty well. We got some good touches,” Eastside coach Champ Young said. “We got a little goal-hungry at the end and just didn’t play like we were supposed to. But, we scored goals and we had fun – a good way to send the seniors out.”
It didn’t take long for Eastside to establish its dominance as Francis scored his first and second goals less than 90 seconds apart.
On his first goal, Francis broke up the middle and scored unassisted at the 35:36 mark of the first half.
Francis’ second goal came after he received a nice pass from senior Jacob Alwes from 40 yards out. Francis flipped the ball over a Warhawks’ defender with his right foot, recaptured the ball and drove it past goalie Harold Earley for a quick 2-0 lead with 34:09 to play in the half.
Senior Dakota Arrington made it 3-0 less than three minutes later as he drilled a rebound past the keeper from just outside the 18-box.
After Arrington’s goal, senior goalie Sarmiento was moved to forward, and Worton replaced him in the net.
Tyrell Francis got in on the scoring act when he corralled a corner kick and put the ball in the net, giving the Eagles a 4-0 lead with 26:39 remaining until halftime.
With 17:29 left in the half, Sarmiento was fouled in the penalty box. Young opted to have senior Mateus Holanda take the penalty kick, which he successfully converted for a 5-0 halftime lead.
Henry County’s lone goal of the match came off the foot of striker Jonathan Poole just 47 seconds into the second half, cutting the lead to 5-1.
However, the Eagles’ Daniel Powers restored the five-goal lead with 27:20 left in the match after the Warhawks defense failed to clear the ball from the goalie box. Powers drilled the ball home, extending Eastside’s lead to 6-1.
Tyrik Francis completed his hat trick at the 14:51 mark, and Sarmiento scored the Eagles’ final goal with 7:09 left in the match, giving Eastside the 8-1 victory.
Eastside has a very important match Friday at Madison County.
According to Young, a win over the Red Raiders would put Eastside into a three-way tie for the final region playoff spot.
“There’s a lot of math involved in that (scenario), but making the playoffs is a possibility,” he said. “We have to beat Madison County first, though.”
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
