Elizabethtown may have won the 5th Region Championship for the second straight season in Boys soccer, but head coach Corey Yates might tell you that it probably wasn’t easy. The 5-1 score over Taylor County may have seemed like it was a breeze as the Panthers got early goals from junior Andrew Ballard and freshman Cole Varela, then added another just before the half by senior Luis Gomez to make it 3-0 against a very talented Cardinal team. Elizabethtown added two more in the second half and the Panther defense led by Goalkeeper Brandon Parsons may have played their best game defensively according to Yates afterwards that they had all season against a very dangerous Taylor County team. Both Ryan Maynard (47-goals) and David Silva (34-goals) were held in check by the Elizabethtown backline and the Cardinals avoided a shutout with 2:38 left when Maynard scored just inside the penalty box.
For Taylor County, who finally saw success for the first time in the 5th Region since moving from the 15th Region saw their season come to an end. It wasn’t an easy road for first year coach Derek Bell either. After breezing through the regular season and District Tournament, they saw their first serious threat in the second round of the Region Tournament against North Hardin, but survived in a dicey shootout to win.
On the otherhand, the road to their second straight Region Tournament trophy hoist has been anything but easy. Since Yates took over the the job, the Panthers struggled to reach the Region Tournament losing two straight 1-0 semi-final District matches against North Hardin in 2015 and 2016, then after running the table in the District, there was the shootout loss the Central Hardin the following year which was preceeded by a flood that made the game look like an “Irwin Allen Disaster Movie.” The following year, despite losing his top scorer from a year ago, were able to overcome two losses to Central Hardin (one in the district final) to finally win in the Region Championship. This season, with the loss of six seniors, have found their balance. True, they lost six games to top twenty competition, but Yates believes that if they hadn’t lost Ty Been to a season endind injury early their record would have been better.
The core of the Panthers attack is still young with Ballard (junior) and Cole Varela (freshman) still in their primes and the Panthers will have plenty of youth ready for the next several seasons as district rivals tend to catch on.
With a looming Tuesday Night road game coming up against Oldham County, the question will now be “Just How Good Can this Panther Team Get?” Continued success is not easy on the Boys soccer universe especially in the 5th Region.
Since 2000, no team has won three straight 5th Region Championships and if history is a cruel reminder of the mortality and parity in the boys soccer world this is the rule. Corey Yates has proved you can win over a period of time with different players and every changing lineups and his ability to keep his team grounded and hungry are proof of it.
I’m sure Yates will let his team enjoy this trophy for a little while, but just long enough before he reminds them how hard it was to get there in the first place and how close they nearly came after losing a 3-0 lead to Bardstown in the Semi-finals to finally pulling out an OT win on Ballard’s fourth goal to possibly going home before Thursday night.
Yates once told me it’s not always easy being the bad guy to your team because all it takes is one missed assignment to completely change the outcome of a final score. The former Elizabethtown soccer star has probably seen it all and although he knew they were always good enough to be there, getting there and staying are two totally different things.
At least for Yates and the Panthers soccer team, there will be a tomorrow.
