McCallie’s Ben Brock, shown during a regular-season match against Notre Dame in April, scored to lead the Blue Tornado to a 1-0 win against Father Ryan in a state quarterfinal Saturday.There never was any real sense of panic within the McCallie soccer “brotherhood” Saturday in the TSSAA Division II-AA soccer quarterfinal against Father Ryan, even after a scoreless first half.
Frustration? Yes. The nationally ranked Blue Tornado created several strong scoring chances early but couldn’t connect. It took less than five minutes of the second half, however, for the golden foot of Ben Brock to change all that.
His goal, off a nice feed from Stone Roebuck, proved to be the lone score in a 1-0 McCallie win.
The Blue Tornado (14-1-1) will face Christian Brothers in the semifinal round this week in Murfreesboro.
“We created so many dangerous chances, but we just couldn’t finish,” said McCallie coach Chris Cushenbery, whose team had a 17-4 shot advantage. “It would have been easy to say it just wasn’t our day and to get frustrated, but they kept after it.