LEWISBURG (WVDN) – The second-ranked (Class AAA) Greenbrier East boys’ soccer team is now 12-0 on the season and looking more and more like a legitimate contender to win a state championship.
Sure, things have to fall exactly into place, and you need a little luck as well, but the Spartans definitely have talent, and that too is what defines good teams from great ones.
And at least right now, East is in the “great” category.
The Spartans defeated Hurricane 2-0 last Thursday, Sept. 22, and gave the Redskins just their second loss of the season. Hurricane had been one of the hottest offensive teams in the entire state prior to the game. East then followed that up with a hard fought 2-1 victory over Brooke on Saturday, Sept. 24. They also defeated Oak Hill, Woodrow Wilson and Saint Albans recently.
Head coach Lucas Lemine said his team has really stepped up and are growing each day.
“The team is always evolving and progressing. We’ve made some changes tactically to hopefully give us a different level of success in the coming weeks. We saw some things in the Woodrow game that need addressed and even in the St. Albans game, we’ve made an adjustment and are feeling in a really good place at the moment,” Lemine said.
Putting your foot on the gas and never letting up is also an everyday speech from the coach to the team.
“After the St. Albans game we talked about developing a killer instinct. Not letting teams stay close. We are firing on all cylinders in the final third of the field, but we aren’t scoring enough goals or creating enough clear opportunities to score and that needs to be an emphasis moving forward,” Lemine explained.
There may be some fans and parents that are shocked at how well the Spartans are doing, but Lemine and his staff knew there was something different about this group of kids.
“We knew this group was special,” Lemine stated.
“They’ve been playing together their entire life no matter the sport. This group has always been really close together. We’ve continued to get better every year and we can say no different this season. We are in a better place at the moment then we were last year. However, we have had conversations about not being complacent and not settling for anything other than our best, the coach concluded.
East has a showdown this Thursday night, Sept. 29, when they travel to top ranked George Washington. The Patriots are 11-0-2 on the season and it will be the biggest game on the slate in West Virginia this week.
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