2020 5th Region Soccer Tournament
At the beginning of the season, Elizabethtown soccer coach Corey Yates was full of questions during the month of August. What do we expect this season with our team? Can we repeat as 5th Region champions when no one else hasn’t? Will we even have a season and if so what happens if they choose to stop it?
Fortunately for Yates, all of those questions were answered by October the 22nd at Nelson County high school when the Panthers won their twelfth game this season and it counted for Elizabethtown’s third straight 5th Region Title.
For the most part, the Panthers quest for their third trip to the State Tournament came this season with very lttle resistance. Yes. There were several close games and Yates scheduled a very tough path losing only to Top Ten teams in the State’s RPI ratings to better prepare them and they did have a strong and large senior class with experience in every position.
After running the table in the District, the Panthers won the 17th District championship and then moved on to the Region tournament where they outscored the competition 7-0.
Once again, Central Hardin stood in their way just as they had back in 2018 when they captured their first Region title and back in 2017 when they ended the Panthers first attempt at restarting the dynasty in the Famous Rain Game in the 17th District Semi-Finals.
This time it was a different result as Elizabethtown got on the board quickly on Ty Been’s goal just two minutes into the game and never looked back. The Panther defense which had been solid all season long held the Bruins scoreless and Dylan Barnes and Cole Varela added three more as the game progressed to finish the scoring.
The 4-0 win was proof that Elizabethtown soccer is BACK and now can stand alone with some of the great programs in Region history with their third straight Region Championship and in a season in which no one was really sure that it would actually happen in the first place it probably will be remembered for more than just another win.
