The Catholic Knights are champions of the middle school soccer tournament hosted at Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School last weekend.
The Knights completed a highly successful season (11-4-2) with the tournament championship. In the tournament, Catholic defeated Wacoochee (Smiths Station) 2-0, tied Thompson (Alabaster) 1-1 and defeated Auburn 3-0.
Thompson finished second in the tournament. In other tournament matches, Thompson and Auburn tied 0-0, Auburn and Wacoochee tied 1-1 and Thompson defeated Wacoochee 3-0.
Chung Lee scored five goals and John Arnold scored once and had three assists to earn All-Tournament honors for the Knights. In Catholic’s victory over Wacoochee, Arnold scored unassisted on a corner kick to put the match out of reach late after a scoreless first half.
Against Thompson, Lee scored the Knights’ only goal on a perfect assist off the head of Timothy McOmber in the first half. Thompson scored late to tie the match and create a three-team race for the title.
After Thompson’s victory over Wacoochee, the title remained in doubt until the final match between Auburn and Catholic. The first half was evenly played as both goalkeepers were challenged repeatedly. Catholic’s David Babb and Sara Parker applied the pressure on the Tiger defense along with James Sherman, who placed repeated shots on goal from long range.
Lee provided a 1-0 halftime lead with his first goal of the game. The Knights dominated the second half with the strong midfield rotation of Ryan Norris, Matt Pouncey, Connor Preston, Clay Ronan, and Greg Hunkins allowing Catholic to press the attack with Caden Been and Chad DuBois.
Lee cracked the Auburn defense twice in the second half to complete the scoring. The strong field leadership of Will Littleton and Sterling Anderson throughout the weekend was a key to clinching the championship.
Goalkeeper Sam McLaughlin and the stubborn Catholic defense including Michael Moussali, Stacey Walton, and Alex Castanza tallied two shutouts and gave up only a single goal in the three matches.
