Staff Reports
The Greenwood Christian boys soccer team knew it faced an uphill climb on Wednesday when it traveled to play its Class A sectional opener against a Southwestern team that had beaten the Cougars, 10-2, four weeks ago.
Though the Cougars cut the host Spartans’ scoring in half in the second meeting, it was unable to crank up its own in a 5-1 defeat.
Anick Hartsell scored three goals for Class A No. 12 Southwestern (13-1), while his brother Aiden accounted for the other two. The Spartans built a 3-0 lead in the first 30 minutes of the match.
Senior John Amador, GCA’s single-season and career scoring leader, got the 18th-ranked Cougars on the board before halftime, but 3-1 was as close as they were able to get. Each of the Hartsells scored once in the second half to help Southwestern put the match away.
Greenwood Christian, which finishes the season with a 7-10-1 record, will return all but two players next season, with Amador and Matthew Heldman the only seniors on the roster.
