‘Cats claim CTC championship for third straight year

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The Tullahoma Wildcats beat the Franklin County Rebels Saturday 3-1, to win the Central Tennessee Conference Championship game.

The Wildcats have now won the CTC regular season and tournament titles in three straight years. They had six all conference players. The players were: Gage Allen, Dylan Honorato, Iker Honorato, Jack Harris, Omar Garcia, and Kaiden Grau.

Tullahoma scored the first goal in the fifth minute of the game. The goal was scored by Grau. His shot was deflected off of a defender, but still crossed the line for a goal.  Then in the last minute of the first half they scored the second goal. Honorato was given a free kick just behind the mid field line. He booted the ball and the goalkeeper could not stop it from finding the net. His goal gave the Wildcats a 2-0 lead at the half.

Honorato added the third goal for the team in the 50th minute of play on another free kick. This time it was from much closer, just about ten feet from the box. The Wildcats did give up a goal in the second half but they only gave up the one despite the amount of shots the Rebels had. Goalkeeper Jayden Conley had his best game of the season racking up 10 saves. Conley had help in the game from the back line of defenders, as the Tullahoma goalkeepers have had all year.

Garcia, Jesus Leyva, Adrian Nalin, Maddox Muse, and Jake Bethea make up the back line for the Wildcats. They were a big part of the reason the Wildcats had a plus 35 goal differential this year in the regular season and a plus seven differential in the CTC tournament. The group of defenders consistently deflected shot attempts, clogged passing lanes, and kicked the ball away from opposing players to set up the defense. All of that adds up to fewer goals allowed.

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