RING THAT BELL! Blue Devils defeat Wildcats 2-1

Wow. 

When we began writing sports articles a short time ago, (more coming–waiting approval) we were looking forward to games like the one that took place last night at Coach Joe Popp Stadium.

Personally, we want to be able to sit here and say…. MOORESVILLE SHOCKS LAKE NORMAN! But we cannot do that even though everyone else will. (though we just did) The main reason is because we were not shocked a bit.  We have watched these young men play with the best of them all season and never let up. 

With the Mooresville soccer team, they are the definition of a team and anything can happen.  They are what team sports are all about.  Nobody ever gives up… someone different usually steps up every night… they are not the biggest guys, and maybe not the fastest, but they have a lot of heart.  And at the end of the day in my short amount of soccer coverage, I have learned that heart is a major factor. 

Sure, we hear this in many sports if not all, but it is a big part of soccer when you are looking at a rival matchup.  Who wants it more? It’s the number one question asked, and the answer speaks for itself when the final buzzer sounds.

This Mooresville Blue Devil team has come a long way in a short time and have done something we haven’t seen in a while.  The bell has been rung!  In an epic matchup versus cross town rival Lake Norman, it was a night for the Mooresville Sr’s with a game winner by a freshman who came through BIG. 

The obvious everyone has been talking about.  The national ranked Lake Norman Wildcats were headed into Mooresville to take on a hungry, scrappy team and expected to come out with a win regardless.  When the match started, immediately the action took place at midfield and basically began a back-and-forth war.  Gone were the Lake Norman games of the past where Mooresville tried to remain on defense and play the Lake Norman type of game, hold on, and hope for a win at the end. Tonight, was a lot different for Mooresville, and they went on the attack early and often.

The number of chances during the first half were unbelievable and Mooresville came up just short on a few opportunities. The beginning of this game was absolutely KEY for Mooresville because the energy was in the air, and you simply felt like something big was about to happen. 

And then it did.

Approaching midway through the first half, senior captain Ryan Amstutz, juked 2 Lake Norman players in amazing fashion and fired a rocket into the back of the net. (photos shown) What followed was a ROAR from the Mooresville crowd and amazing celebration post goal really setting the tone early. In an absolute EPIC move, as Ryan cut left, a voice was heard from the faithful Devils Den crowd (follow them @mhsdevilsden2022) yell “YOUR ANKLES ARE ON THE 39 YARD LINE” in a goal Ryan Amstutz would later describe as “Maybe the best goal of my life” making the score Mooresville 1-0.

The remainder of the half was a battle taking place mostly at mid field highlighted by some late drama and a lot of free kicks.  In usual circumstances, these schools are more allowed to “play”, meaning a more physical manner versus a cross town rival, but the officials wanted to make sure they called this a bit closer right from the beginning.  We are in no means trying to undermine or discredit officiating at all but many of these games do need to be called in various ways to a degree, based on the visiting opponent and past history. 

Lake Norman began the second half planning to make a statement.  They came out hard and immediately put shots on goal.  The focus was getting back to playing Lake Norman soccer and outsmarting and scheming the opposing defenses we have so commonly seen.  All that paid off when Lake Norman striker quickly burst by defenders and got one into the Mooresville net.  Lake Norman simply had too many chances during this short stretch of the game making the inevitable happen and tied the game up 1-1 with about 14 minutes left in the match.

“Not so fast my friends!” (Thanks Lee Corso) Only minutes later, the Mooresville offense had no plans of playing the tie game, nor did they plan to sit back and allow Lake Norman to get into their groove.  They came at the Wildcats fast with tremendous veracity (sorry, too many Batman movies) and kept attacking.

In comes Brian Rodriguez who decided he was having none of it.  He knows about the Lake Norman game and quite frankly does not care who they are or what they are ranked. Just a freshman, in his very first outing versus the rival, he spun around to his left on a blind shot inside the box and knocked it into the back of the net making it 2-1 Blue Devils. Rodriguez turned around looking for the nearest teammate who was senior captain Ryan Amstutz who approached and gave him a bear hug and lifted him in the air like a scene from “The Titanic” which at the same time sunk the hopes of Lake Norman.  Rodriguez flew alright, and so did the remaining Mooresville players who mauled him in celebration.

The stunned Lake Norman defense began to try and assess what happened, and who to blame but it was just a great shot.  Many teams would do the same and look for mistakes, but this time it was just a great goal, in a perfect spot by the freshman Rodriguez.

Mooresville goalie Ben Burger was simply on fire all night.  Ben has played many games over his 4-year career at Mooresville and was really looking to go out with a win against Lake Norman.  We spoke briefly before the match, and I could tell he was just ready.  There is no other word I can describe other than that, and possibly being on an unstoppable mission. 

The defensive support from Randy Estrada and Alex Tilley were unheard of.  These are all senior players who stepped up huge and made a statement about how they wanted to go out, at home, against their biggest rival.  They did what so many others could not, and it makes for a huge boost to continue the season. 

Liam Myatt, Tanner Small, and Austin Tinucci played fantastic all night. As usual, they aggravated the Lake Norman team by constantly pressing the ball and playing smart soccer.  Every opportunity it seemed was shut down either by good defense or a fantastic save. 

“GOOD BALL” was a phrase heard a lot tonight out of coaches Paul Kikta and Susan Hudson and that is always a good sign.  These two are called “first year coaches” extremely loosely because their combined experience is next level, which we touched on earlier in the season.  When the entire package is working, seeing the senior leadership of Amstutz, Burger, Tilley, Sanchez, Myatt, Estrada, Savar, and the many years of experience from the sidelines, good things will happen in time.

Other key points of the game:

A dog, or dogs, real dogs… were on the field near the bushes headed out to the back gate late in the game to do their business.  I was told by the @MHSDevilsDen and more specifically that “the only dog allowed on the field is Ryan Amstutz” MS (that’s us, Mooresville Sports) will make note of this and talk to athletic director Hoppy Hopkins about changing the signage outside the gate.

Would like to commend the live game announcer.  We felt he did an incredible job and lifted the spirit of our fans and players alike. It made for an excellent atmosphere and was a pleasure to listen to all evening.

A decent size group of students showed up for the match and were not disappointed.  It was great to see this amount of support.  The one thing we have always hoped to see are larger crowds for Mooresville soccer.  Hopefully after this evening, with the excitement in the air, many will return to see what the future holds.  Take it from us, we have seen some epic matches filled with drama, hard hitting, and late game victories. 

The Lake Norman goalkeeper played well tonight and battled hard, but in the end, Mooresville was just too much for the Wildcats. We give Lake Norman a lot of credit and face it, being ranked nationally always has the spotlight on you.  It comes with tremendous pressure and rival games are some of the most difficult there is. 

Based on history between these two schools, we are certain this will not be the last time Mooresville hears from Lake Norman, and we expect many more great matchups to come.   The rematch will be coming at Lake Norman later in the season and the Blue Devils must be ready, because it won’t be all rainbows and unicorns.