MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Boyd-Buchanan's Miles Wood sat on the field at the Richard Siegel Soccer Complex, largely inconsolable after the Buccaneers fell 3-0 to Franklin Grace in the Division II-A soccer state final Thursday night.
Coaches and players alike came over, offering words, each one feeling the same pain that the talented senior goal-scorer felt. Nearby, defender Matt Stone stood perplexed, attempting to comprehend the result.
It was a disappointing ending to the Spring Fling for the Bucs (18-3), back in the title round for the first time since winning the program's lone TSSAA state championship in 2010 as a Class A/AA program. But the Lions (17-2-2) scored in the second minute of each half, negating the fact that Boyd-Buchanan controlled a fair amount of the possession and finished with a 9-4 advantage in shots, with each team putting four on goal.
The day before, the Bucs experienced the high of a one-goal win in the semifinals that ended an 0-3 skid in state tournament games since the title victory. Boyd-Buchanan head coach Dustin Walker looked beyond the results.
"Life is just so much more than soccer," he said. "We've won a game in the finals that we probably should have lost, and we lost a game today that we felt like we probably should have won, and it's just more than soccer. We get to hang out with an amazing group of guys, and they get to build relationships with each other and we get to build relationships with them, and they hurt because they're competitors.
"We've got an awesome group of guys that committed to working for each other and suffering with each other and bleeding with each other. We lost today, but I'm probably the proudest coach here. We played really well; they (Grace) were very opportunistic with their chances, and we weren't in that game. But I couldn't be more proud of these guys; it was a special season and truly one of these teams that we're not going to forget."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.