Eagles’ star striker makes short work of Rockets
By Robert Carter
The North Jefferson News
Of all the bigger challenges that Gardendale’s various sports teams have had to face in moving up from Class 5A to 6A this year, perhaps no challenge has been bigger than that of the Rockets’ boys soccer team.
That challenge was laid out in full Monday night, as top-ranked two-time defending state champion Oak Mountain came calling, with celebrated striker Chandler Hoffman leading the way.
Hoffman, signed by UCLA, lived up to his billing. He scored the game’s first goal — the 102nd of his prep career — in the sixth minute of Oak Mountain’s 8-1 romp over the Rockets at Driver Stadium..
Hoffman made a cameo appearance, pulled out of the game by coach Justin Pratt shortly after his goal, resting his star for Tuesday’s game with Chelsea (the high school, not the English Premier League team) and Friday’s tilt against Vestavia Hills.
But Hoffman’s teammates picked up the slack with ease, as they scored four goals in the first 27 minutes to put the match well in hand before the halftime whistle.
It’s the sort of treatment that Gardendale coach Ryan Griffin expected when his team moved up to the top class in the state.
“It’s not only 6A, but it’s the best level of 6A. Teams that don’t even make it into the playoffs are good enough to win the state championship,” Griffin said. “It’s a new world for us, and we’re going to take our lumps.”
Rockets goalkeeper was under assault for the entire 80 minutes. He totaled 14 saves, and saw numerous other shots go whizzing over the crossbar or outside the uprights.
Junior forward Thomas Holloway was the only multiple goal scorer of the match, taking a leading pass down the right touch line in for a score five minutes before intermission, then coming out four minutes after the break with a goal that bounced around several Gardendale defenders, and nearly appeared to be an own-goal.
Sophomore Nick Talton scored the only goal for the Rockets (3-7-1) in the 52nd minute, off an assist from Travis Hand.
The Eagles (10-1-1) also recorded goals from Donnie Maciel, Daniel Wolfe, Zach Rodivich, William Glass and Michael Peder.
The schedule doesn’t get any better for Gardendale, especially this week. After Tuesday night’s game with second-ranked Hoover, they face Ramsay on Thursday and Spain Park on Saturday. Coupled with the three games in the Metro Soccer Tournament, that’s seven matches for Gardendale in 11 days’ time.
“It’s a situation we face every year about this time, with no games during the week of state testing and the metro tournament after that,” Griffin said.
Despite the lopsided score, Griffin was pleased with his team’s effort against Oak Mountain.
“They didn’t quit out there. The defense kept it up. But these teams are really skilled and really athletic. We’ve just got to be dumb enough to think we have a chance against these teams, and then play like it.”
‰ Rockets finish Metro Tournament: Gardendale completed a “hat trick” of sorts in last week’s Metro Boys Soccer Tournament lower division, with a 5-0 win over Ramsay, a 1-1 draw with Pinson Valley and a 1-0 loss to Clay-Chalkville.
“We got down early in the second half against Pinson when they scored in the 56th minute, and then Shane Smith scored from 30 yards out with 1:30 left,” Griffin said. “We needed to beat Clay by two goals in the last match to advance out of our pool, but we couldn’t finish anything against them.”