CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Like a firing squad, the Cleveland soccer team teed off on Warren County goalkeeper J.D. Keele on Tuesday in the Region 3-AAA semifinals, peppering shots from all angles.
The Blue Raiders weren't always successful, but they kept firing, with midfielder Oscar Amaya even nailing Cleveland coach John Brose in the back in the game's final moments.
But by then they had put a few in the back of the net.
Graham Hammond scored first late in the first half. Luis Martinez added a goal midway through the second half, and the 10th-ranked Blue Raiders advanced to Thursday's region championship match with a 3-1 win over the Pioneers.
Cleveland (15-2-3) will travel to face Cookeville (15-4-2), which defeated McMinn County 2-0 in the other semifinal, in Thursday's final. Both teams qualify for the Class AAA sectionals, to be played Saturday at the home sites of the state's eight region champions.
The Blue Raiders thought they had taken a 1-0 lead moments prior to Hammond's goal when he punched in a shot, but he was ruled offside. That goal at least took the shield off the net, with Hammond quickly scoring on the team's 18th shot on goal.
The lead doubled after a nice service from the left wing by Grant Taylor was tapped in by Martinez, but the Pioneers (8-7-1) cut in half on a long shot from the right wing by Adrian Tejas into the corner of the net.
The match was finally put away when Tommy Marino netted a shot in the 74th minute.
"I thought we played great. We just didn't finish as well as we would have liked or we could have put the game away earlier than it was," Brose said. "At the end of the day, it's the playoffs, we win and we move on, so we're happy to do that."
Cleveland tied Cookeville 1-all in a March 18 match at Cleveland. Although Thursday is a road game, Brose was excited about an opportunity to win and play again on Cleveland's soil in a sectional with the team's first state tournament appearance since 2009 on the line.
"We just wanted to play our game and do what we had to do to win tonight. We'll worry about the rest later," he said. "We've put ourselves in a spot to win the region.
"It's going to be a good challenge, but I think we're up to it."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/ genehenleytfp.