CANTON — Pisgah and Tuscola, both winless in conference play, faced each other Wednesday at Pisgah Memorial Stadium for their first regular season varsity boys soccer match.
The Mountaineers improved their record to 1-2-0 in the WNC Athletic Conference and 3-7-0 overall, while the Black Bears dropped to 0-8-0 and 0-4-0 in the WNCAC after losing the cross county rivalry.
Tuscola head coach John Douthit was proud of his team’s first conference win.
“Both teams played decent with good touches, ball control and thoughtful passing,” said Coach Douthit. “Our team did what the coaching staff asked them to do today.”
The first half of play presented two very evenly matched teams with the ball crossing mid field often with possession just about equal. Pisgah almost broke the scoreless tie at the 28-minute mark only to have Ethan Ward’s slow dribbler, entering Pisgah’s goal, to be nullified by a penalty called on Ward just prior to the shot.
Eight minutes later, Pisgah did break the scoreless tie by a penalty kick served by Levi Grogan following the Mountaineer’s penalty in the box. With seven minutes remaining in the first half, Tuscola answered the first Pisgah goal with a 35-yard shot by Logan Lambert, which Pisgah goalie Mario Alvarado was unable to stop.
The Mountaineers threaten to score near the end of the first half but was unable to get anything past Pisgah keeper Mario Alvarado.  Neither team was able to score the remainder of the first half with it ending in a one to one tie.
The Mountaineers entered the second half with aggressive play which continued for the rest of the game. Only two minutes into the second half, a penalty kick by Steven Huppe gave the Mountaineers the lead. Another Tuscola goal, 10 minutes into the second half, came from Aaron Westhusing who scored on the rebound after a deflection by the Black Bear goalkeeper.
The Black Bears were not able to produce many threats against the Mountaineers defense as the ball was solidly controlled by Tuscola for the remainder of the game.  Tuscola presented 11 shots on goal while the Black Bears had five.
“We played well. We passed well. We moved the ball well. We just did not finish when we needed to,” said Pisgah Head Coach Ralph Michael. “We do not have an experienced or deep bench and that led to us playing tired at times. It was a good hard fought game.”
The Black Bears travel to North Henderson on Monday (Sept. 24), while the Mountaineers will play at C.E. Weatheerby Stadium against visiting West Henderson.