By DOUG EADS, CJ Sports Writer
Somerset — On a night when the Somerset Briar Jumpers said goodbye to nine seniors at the final home game of the season, coach Brian Blankenship’s team certainly saved its best for last.
Hosting Perry County Central, Blankenship’s crew simply played lights out by handing the Commodores only their second loss of the season, in a very impressive, 5-0 victory.
“It was senior night, and obviously the emotions were running a little too high at the beginning of the game which made me a little nervous,” said Blankenship, after watching his club improve to 8-4-3 on the season with the victory.
“We knew they (Perry County Central) were a pretty good team because they had only lost one game coming in,” stated the SHS coach. “They had played everybody out there, and they had beaten everybody. They could only do what they could do against the competition out there. They had played South Laurel and Corbin, and some other pretty good teams in that region, so we knew that we couldn’t just come out and think we were going to win this game by just showing up.”
All nine of Somerset’s seniors — Danny Clark, Ryan Fortenberry, Felipe Ortiz, Drew Martin, Jordan Morris, Carl Weller, Alfredo Salcedo, Florian Stoudt, and Derek Daniel — took the field at Clara Morrow Field for the final time of their high school careers, against a Perry County Central squad that came into the matchup with the Briar Jumpers on the proverbial roll in 2008.
The Commodores sported an 11-1-2 record coming into Thursday night’s contest, with that lone setback coming on the road at Corbin a couple of weeks ago by a score of 4-1.
On top of that, Perry County Central boasted the state’s leading scorer in Justin Lunsford, who came into the matchup with Somerset with 27 goals scored this year in 14 games.
However on this senior night, none of that mattered.
Alex Pence scored the first of his two goals on the evening thanks to a nice assist from Clark about three minutes into the contest, and with 37:17 left in the first half, Somerset was off and running with a 1-0 lead.
Later in the half, Colby Hall scored a goal off a beautiful corner kick by Brent Joplin, and the Jumpers went into the intermission with a 2-0 advantage.
Corey Mounce tallied goal number three with 16:45 left in the contest off an assist by Joplin making it 3-0 in favor of Somerset, before Daniel and Pence closed things out by scoring goals late, giving Somerset a very impressive 5-0 win.
So coach Blankenship, with just a week left in the regular season, do you like where your club is at headed down the stretch and toward the upcoming district tournament?
“At the beginning of the year, we were struggling to find out what shape we were going to play, who was going to play where, and now it’s sort of played out and we’ve got a good rotation and we know who is going to start, and who is going to rotate in,” pointed out the Jumper coach.
“In our last seven games, we haven’t lost, and we’ve played some very good teams over that stretch, so yes, I’m very pleased with where we are as we come down to the end of the year,” said Blankenship.
The Jumpers will close out the ‘08 season next week with a pair of games on the road.
On Tuesday night, Blankenship and crew will travel to South Laurel, before closing out the regular season next week against a very good and Top 10-ranked Henry Clay squad.
The following week beginning on Monday, October 13th, Somerset will open up play in the district tournament at Pulaski County High School by taking on the home-standing Maroons.
