Jags beat Red Raiders, set up showdown with Ashbrook

GASTONIA — Forestview players ran probably as hard after Wednesday’s 3-0 win over South Point as they did during the game.

Jaguars coach David Shearer was happy with the win but not with the effort. And with their biggest rival next on the schedule, he made sure to get his point across by demanding a series of wind sprints.

“Maybe I’m a little harder on the guys, but we definitely didn’t put together what I would call a quality 80 minutes of play,” Shearer said.

Danny Sassano, Justin Henry and Jordan Beam scored the goals for Forestview (6-4, 3-0 Big South 3A Conference), which remained a half-game behind Ashbrook in the race for the league title. The Green Wave, meanwhile, improved to 4-0 in the Big South by beating Kings Mountain 5-0 Wednesday.

Perhaps the Jaguars players got caught looking ahead to Monday’s game at Ashbrook, a rematch of Forestview’s 2-0 Gazette Cup title game victory last month. Or perhaps they paid a bit too much attention to Ashbrook’s score against South Point on Monday — 6-1.

“They saw the score from Monday’s game and they thought they’d do the same,” Shearer said. “After we got two, three goals, they kind of relaxed and thought it was just going to happen.”

But a win is a win, and the Jaguars never seemed in danger of losing.

Sassano scored on a free kick in the fifth minute for a quick 1-0 lead, and Henry made it 2-0 seven minutes later, taking an assist from Cody Bridges for a commanding margin.

Everything seemed to go Forestview’s way, and that was never more evident than on the Jaguars’ final goal. After a foul near the corner in the 54th minute, Beam was in the right place at the right time, redirecting a ball from Price Martin into the net.

“Price deflected it and I was just there to clean it up,” said Beam, a senior. “It was a good ball in and I got lucky.”

Jonathan “Boo” Davis and Andrew Gibbons shared the shutout in goal, Forestview’s fifth shutout of the season.

South Point (3-6-2, 2-2 Big South) lost its second straight game after starting conference action 2-0.

“They moved the ball so fast — 80 minutes of just one-, two-touch soccer,” South Point senior Kevin Patz said. “Tonight we just didn’t match up.”

The Red Raiders step out of conference play Monday when they travel to Olympic. Their next Big South match will be Wednesday at North Gaston. 

You can reach Phillip Gardner at 704-869-1843.