Murfreesboro Post
MURFREESBORO WEATHER

Stewarts Creek soccer beats Oakland to stay undefeated




Stewarts Creek’s Sabrina White pushes the defender out of the way as she runs over to gain possession of the ball. ETHAN SCOTT

Stewarts Creek’s Sabrina White pushes the defender out of the way as she runs over to gain possession of the ball. ETHAN SCOTT

Fresh off winning the Smoky Mountain Cup over the weekend, the Stewarts Creek Red Hawks soccer team beat the Oakland Patriots 3-1 for the second time this season Tuesday night.

Stewarts Creek improved its record to 14-0 thanks to stellar goalkeeping by Karli Newton, tough defense by the Red Hawk back line and a pair of goals from Kinley Buena.

“It’s physical back there,” Stewarts Creek coach Jeff Marlow said about his defenders. “Sabrina White’s the glue back there. She holds everything together. She’s been in that position for me a couple of years and she leads by example.”

The Red Hawk back line of White, Kaylee Edde and Kyla Hawkins made life easier for Newton by marking Patriots and breaking up shot opportunities with tough challenges.

“Playing Oakland is always a challenge because there so physical,” White said. “They send it up and its footraces a lot, so it’s very hard to defend them sometimes.”

The Red Hawks got off to a slower start offensively. Stewarts Creek had ample shots on goal, but Oakland keeper Sophie Turner was able to deny the Red Hawks every time. But Buena was able to break through at the 17:54 mark in the first half to put Stewarts Creek up 1-0.

“Delaney Mitchell played (Buena), and she took a shot far post,” Marlow said. “Sophie Turner is outstanding. To beat her you have to put it in the perfect spot, and what Kinley did, she put it off that post and got just enough of a bounce for it to cross the line.”

Buena scored two goals against Oakland in the teams’ first meeting on Aug. 30. Tuesday night she was able to replicate her efforts and beat Turner twice. Her second goal came by way of an assist by Delaney Mitchell and Buena put Stewarts Creek up 2-0 at the 58-minute mark. But Oakland was able to get on the board mere seconds later when Ella Riley was able to beat Karli Newton.

With the score 2-1, Marlow brought on freshman Emma Bowling to the Red Hawk back line and dropped junior Hannah Opie back to give Stewarts Creek a fourth defender. The quartet was able to keep Oakland at bay and Delaney Mitchell finally put the game out of reach with a goal with 3:15 left to play in the game.

“At the end we move to four in the back and Hannah’s the choice,” Marlow said. “We move Kyla next to Sabrina and the two of them play well, they have good chemistry already, and moving Hannah back gives us a little more speed to help see things out.”  

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