Piedmont Soccer Boys Remain Undefeated

The Piedmont Academy boys soccer team posted another victory Tuesday as the Cougars defeated Heritage 3-0.

The game was called early in the second after lightning was detected in the area. Piedmont coach Dwain Landress said the game would have had to be delayed for at least 30 minutes before it could be restarted.

Landress said Heritage’s athletic director did not want to wait for the delay to end and conceded the game with a two-hour bus ride back home on a school night.

“We started off somewhat slow,” Landress said. “We were up 2-0 at halftime but were not playing that well. We came out with more focus in the second half.”

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Nick Dimsdale scored the first goal for the Cougars off an assist from Hunter Clark. Malik Reid then scored with Nick Adamczyk gaining the assist.

The final goal of the match came on a unassisted attempt by Dimsdale.

The Piedmont girls fell 5-2 Tuesday to Heritage in a rematch of a Final Four game from last spring. Landress said Heritage remains one of the top teams in the state.

“I’m not sure if we were thinking about last year but we came out flat,” the coach said.

Trailing 2-1 at halftime, the Lady Cougars would see Heritage move in front 3-1 before Hailey Burnham scored a goal on an assist from Jordan Blackmon. That would be as close as Piedmont would get, however.

Blackmon had previously scored the first goal of the match for the Lady Cougars.

“We had more opportunities to score,” Landress said. “We need to win a game like this to get our confidence up. We need to be able to take on a program which has a winning reputation. We have some work to do before we play them again. Still, even in this match, we had so many chances.”

Prior to Tuesday’s action, the Piedmont boys rallied for a 3-2 victory against Christian Heritage in Dalton.

The start time for the varsity games were changed since several members of the Lady Cougars were taking the SAT earlier in the day. Piedmont had to face a three-hour trip for the match as well as a physical opponent.

“Their field is also a little smaller than what we are used to playing on,” Landress said. “I’m not sure how much rain they had but their field was wet and it didn’t drain well. We didn’t look like the first team from our first two matches.”

Trailing 2-0 at halftime, Piedmont got on the board on a goal by Davis Kimball off a misdirected attempt from Clark.

“That goal woke us up,” Landress said.

Dimsdale then tied the score on a penalty kick and would eventually give the Cougars a 3-2 lead after a successful attempt from approximately 25 yards out.

“We battled through a lot of adversity,” Landress said. “It was a hard-fought win.”

Owen Kimball played well in goal and continues to improve with each match, his coach said.

“Bobby Mitchell and Jeremy Wood also played steady defense in the second half,” said Landress.

The Lady Cougars dropped a 1-0 match to Christian Heritage.

“I warned the girls before the match we wouldn’t get any calls,” Landress said. “I told them to play through it. It was a very physical match as well.”

Christian Heritage scored the lone goal in the first half and was able to make that lead hold up.

“We stayed on their side most of the second half, but could never even the score,” Landress said. “Carley Cain made several big saves for us. Physically and mentally, it was a tough one. I think it will be different when they have to come to our place. We will look at that one as a learning experience.”

The Piedmont varsity girls defeated Central Fellowship 4-0 last Thursday. Lanie King and Jordan Hicks scored goals while Heather Tyler finished with two goals.

“It was a match where we could have won by a wider margin,” Landress said. “We didn’t capitalize on all of our scoring opportunities.”