Scoring depth is helping the McCallie soccer progam make another deep postseason run.
The flaming blue heat that is coach Chris Cushenbery’s Blue Tornado got goals from four players in Friday’s 4-1 home win over Nashville’s Ensworth in the TSSAA Division II-AA state quarterfinals, securing their place among the classification’s final four teams at next week’s Spring Fling.
Junior left back Elliott Arnold provided quite the cushion going into halftime. After senior Brandon Mathurin fooled the Tigers with his decoy move on a free kick, Arnold came in behind him to hammer the ball around a wall of defenders and into the far right corner of the net, making it 3-0 with six seconds left in the first half.
“Every single player on this team can score. We are not a one-man team whatsoever,” Arnold said. “We do everything together. From the beginning of the season, we knew what we needed to do to win a state title: Be a team and have great chemistry. We are fighting together out there, and our goal is to become the best team in McCallie history.”
McCallie (13-0-1), ranked No. 6 in the country by MaxPreps.com, is two wins from finishing off the first unbeaten season in program history and adding a fourth state title to go with those won by the Blue Tornado in 1999, 2018 and 2019. McCallie will take on Montgomery Bell Academy (12-1-1) next Wednesday at 3 p.m. Eastern in the state semifinals at Murfreesboro’s Richard Siegel Soccer Complex.