Grace Academy soccer coach Gavin Gromacki knew long before Tuesday night's kickoff with Boyd-Buchanan that plenty of chances for growth would present themselves.
Grace's Golden Eagles didn't post a win two seasons ago. But last year, Grace went 7-5-1 and finished third in District 5-A/AA. This season looked promising, despite a fairly young roster hurt by graduation. Tuesday, sickness robbed Grace of three of its players, including the starting goalkeeper. A big learning chance was here.
The Buccaneers didn't disappoint as they improved to 7-0 with an 8-0 district win over the Golden Eagles, who dropped to 2-2-1. The Bucs jumped to a 5-0 halftime lead and were never threatened as they racked up 23 shots on goal to just one for Grace.
Hayes Wood scored a goal in the first half and two in the second, while David Ingram and Will Boyaton each booted in a pair of goals for the Bucs. John Beasley scored the Bucs' first goal when he sailed a corner kick past Grace defenders just over eight minutes into the game.
Boyaton suffered what appeared to be a severe right ankle injury when he kicked the bottom of a Grace player's cleat. But by game's end, he was walking fairly well. Overall, Bucs coach Dustin Walker was elated about how smoothly his team executed and won.
"It's very important to get a district win. I'm pretty happy with the 'D' getting the shutout in this game. It's big," Walker said. "They just really want to win. And they work hard for it. Every time they step on the field, they work hard for each other and to try to get the win.
"Will is our leading scorer with 13 goals: He's one of those kids who is so intense. He has one speed. If we're up a few goals, it doesn't slow him down at all. He's a really tough kid."
Grace's Connor Ferrel, Tommy Short and Austin Smith had to sit the contest out. Smith's absence forced freshman goalie Eithan Bradley into goal. Bradley played hard, Gromacki said, but his newness to the game and errors throughout the Golden Eagles' lineup proved costly.
"I was proud of the ways the guys fought. We were down a few players and had some people in some new positions - a little bit of inexperience," Gromacki said. "I was telling the guys Boyd's a good team and it's not like they just worked on that yesterday. They put the work in, not only this season, but in the offseason and seasons past.
"So there's some good lessons for us to be able to go up against a good quality team like that - probably the best team on our schedule. And they've beaten some teams pretty good in the district. Lot of good lessons for us moving forward. I told the guys it's just another step in the journey. There's a lot of areas we still need to improve. I told them, we come on the field as a team, we leave as a team. A lot of good lessons on how details matter. I was proud of them, though."
The Bucs coach knows his team will need to play with this same detemination the rest of the year. But he know he's getting great senior leadership from Beasley and Ingram.
"They're really our leaders. Dave is one of those players who stays on his feet too much some times. Every time he gets fouled, he fights through it," Waker said. "And he is just one of those players that is so intense and so strong on the ball, that he's hard to knock off at times.
"We had a lot of guys who are just determined."
Contact Jeff Rancudo at sports@timesfreepress.com.