Whitney's goal lifts TKA soccer to title

By: SCNow Staff | SCNow
Published: May 12, 2008

DARLINGTON — Florence Christian might have gotten the better of The King’s Academy in football and basketball this school year, but soccer is a different story.
On Saturday at Trinity Collegiate, Patrick Whitney knocked home a goal in the 23rd minute of the second half that proved to be the game-winner as The King’s Academy defeated Florence Christian 2-1 for the SCISA Class 2A state championship.
“(Winning the state title) took a lot of work,” Whitney said. “Florence Christian is a great team that knows how to pass the ball. We had to play smart against them.”
The win is TKA’s second over Florence Christian this season.
“We beat them earlier this season on their field, and it was a lot smaller than this one,” Lions goalkeeper Jimmy Bokelman said. “We’re a lot faster than they are, and we knew (Trinity Collegiate) had a big field.
“We knew we could beat them again.”
With the score tied 1-1, Whitney took a pass from Brooks Asger and launched a shot past Derrick Lowe into the left corner to give The King’s Academy a 2-1 advantage with 6:10 to play.
“Throughout the game, I had been open in the middle,” Whitney said. “I got a good pass from (Asger) and I found an open shot.”
From there, the Lions swarmed the Eagles scorers.
When a Florence Christian player was able to break the press, Bokelman — who finished with 15 saves — was there to turn away any scoring opportunity.
“We had to do a lot of moving around because of injuries, and we had to play of lot of guys in positions they weren’t used to,” Lions coach Gene Rivers said. “But we had a game plan in place and we worked it to a win.”
“We were without our playmaker, Taylor McPherson, after he went out with an injury in the first half,” Eagles coach Terrence Harris said. “We just came out flat in the second half and we were back on our heels.”
Florence Christian was able to crack the Lions’ defense in the first half when Merritt Thomas beat Bokelman with a shot in the 30th minute for a 1-0 lead.
In the first minute of the second half, eighth-grader Daniel Miele took a pass from Will Brown and fired a shot that caromed off the crossbar into the net for a 1-1 tie.
“(This game) was phenomenal,” Bokelman said. “Everyone on both teams gave all they had and left it on the field.”
Retiring TKA athletic director Eddie Huggins summed up the state title with, “How sweet it is.”

Whitney's goal lifts TKA soccer to title

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