MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- Central Magnet played without starter Luis Sanchez on Tuesday afternoon.
Sophomore Cole Yoders made sure it didn't matter.
Central Magnet's Zavior Phillips battles Signal Mountain's Ben Brown for possession. Phillips scored two goals.Yoders and Zavior Phillips scored all of the Tigers' goals in a 5-1 rout of Signal Mountain in a Region 4-A/AA semifinal at the Richard Siegel Soccer Complex.
Yoders scored three goals and dished out two assists and Phillips added two goals to run his season total to a county-best 39.
"I knew coming into the game I had to do more with Luis out of the game," Yoders said. "I just was in the right spot at the right time to help Zavior out up there."
Sanchez missed the game with an ankle injury sustained during the District 8 championship match. He likely won't be back in the lineup until next week at the TSSAA state tournament -- if the Tigers are fortunate to make a return trip.
Central Magnet (17-1-2) plays Thursday at Chattanooga Christian (11-5-2) in the Region 4 championship match. It marks the second straight region-final appearance for Central, which avenged last year's region-final loss to Signal Mountain on Tuesday.
Both Central and CCS are guaranteed Saturday sectional games. The region champion hosts a sectional.
Signal Mountain graduated nine starters off last year's state-tournament team.
"We were glad to still be playing tonight," Signal Mountain coach Richard Northcutt said. "But one of the things that hurt us was that we got snow days during our preseason. If you are returning nine starters, things may go more smooth. But when you lose nine, and then we got snowed out of eight or 10 practices."
Phillips led Yoders with a touch pass just in front of the Signal Mountain defense that Yoders chased down and scored past goalkeeper Griffin Palmer in the fourth minute for an early 1-0 lead. Minutes later Phillips nearly scored again, but his shot ricocheted off the right goal post and Spencer Beckman couldn't corral the rebound to tap it in.
But Phillips made it 2-0 in the 14th minute for his 38th goal of the season.
"I remember when we played Siegel last year and they beat us 3-2," Phillips said. "Luckily we got to keep going (in the postseason) and we made it to state.
"We knew we had to come out and score quick. We heard they were a very good defensive team."
Yoders made it 3-0 in the 34th minute with his putback off Phillips' miss.
But Signal Mountain answered minutes later when Stephan Heinchen scored past Central goalkeeper Kris Dobson.
Yoders responded with his final goal of the night in the 54th minute off a pass from Jeremiah Petty to make it 4-1. Phillips ended the scoring off a pass from Yoders in the 59th minute.