Jun. 19—GATE CITY, Va. — Graham goalkeeper Nic Knowles had a lot of nice saves during the 2021 regular season. But none was as big as the one had Friday night at Gate City’s Legion Field.
Nic Knowles blocked Gate City’s third and fourth penalty kick shots to seal Graham’s 4-2 victory over the Blue Devils in Friday night’s Region 2D tournament championship match .
Graham will advance to the Class 2 Final Four, facing either Glenvar or Appomattox on Monday at East River Soccer Complex. Kickoff time has yet to be determined.
After the regulation period ended in a scoreless stalemate, four consecutive scoreless five-minute overtime periods were conducted. When things shifted into penalty kick shootout mode, Graham’s kickers gave Knowles something substantial to defend.
Ben Morgan, Zach Dales, Brayden Surface and Luke Stowers each hit their respective penalty kick attempts in order,
Knowles did what he had to do on the defensive end after the swap and the rest is history.
“We lost the regional championship in 2016 on a penalty kick shootout and I said that we’d never lose that way again,” said Graham boys head soccer coach George Aiello.
“Since that day, we’ve practiced penalty kicks in every practice,” he said.
Aiello started coaching the G-Men in 2012 and led them to their first of four regional tournament appearances in 2016.
Graham (14-0) won its first regional title in 2019, beating Richlands 5-1 at Sugar Hollow Park in Bristol, Va. The G-Men missed out entirely on the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Monday’s state semifinal game will mark the G-Men’s second VHSL Final Four appearance.
Aiello seemed stunned by Gate City’s 1-0 victory over Richlands during Wednesday’s Region 2D semifinals, but experienced first hand on Friday night the defensive grit the Blue Devils (10-2-2) brought to the field.
Luke Stokes and David Edwards made the Blue Devils’ two PKs during the shootout. The 4-for-4 showing by Graham was a bitter pill for Gate City goalkeeper Luke Reed, whose clean-sheet heroics against Richlands in the semifinals were surely a peak experience for the youngster.
Preventing Graham from bulging the old onion sack throughout regulation and four overtime periods was no small feat in its own right, however, neither for Reed nor his defensive cohort.
“We had a lot of opportunities. We just couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net [during regulation play],” Aiello said.
“They are a good team, though.”