The Roanoke Rapids High School Yellow Jackets men's soccer team fell short to the Dixon Bulldogs Tuesday night in the third round of the 2A NCHSAA State Championship play-offs.
Roanoke Rapids fell 0-1 to Dixon.
Jackets head coach Craig Jean stated after the match, "It was a tough loss tonight as Dixon is an extremely talented team. The speed and skill of their entire team, but especially #15, Ames, caused us to switch up our strategy. He was by far the most difficult player to stop we have seen this year. Camden Parks did a great job marking him but it wore him down and took him out of our attack. They did a great job of keeping us on the defensive end and never let us find any rhythm offensively. Thomas Merritt played great again- he made 26 saves and about 10 of them were very difficult. We had a handful of good chances but we were off the majority of the game tonight. They scored the only goal with little under 3 min left in game to win it 1-0. I am still very proud of my guys' effort tonight and this entire season. We will miss the seniors that we are losing, (Thomas Merritt, Zach Carter, Billy Ricks, Chase Johnson, Camden Parks, and Devonte Hyman), but they have left the program in great shape. I can't say enough good things about these young men. It was a heck of a fun ride and in few days the dissapointment of this loss will turn into an appreciation of what we did accomplish. 21-1-1 is a record we are all very proud of. The bar is set high now and returning players will work hard to continue having success."
Coach Jean also stated, "We would like to say thank you for all the support we received at RRHS and from the community throughout the season. "
Pictured above are:
Front Row L to R: Nicholas King, Cameron Wilson, Thomas Merritt, AJ Pearson, Paul MacNichol, Justin Mitchell, Peyton Anderson
2nd Row: Camden Parks, Jake Van Dam, Josh Miller, Anderson Castillo, Daniel Acree, Devonte Hyman
3rd Row: Eric Gonzalez, Billy Ricks, Carson Neal, Abdul Alrahimi, Gray Draper, Emerson Escobar, Emerson Castillo
4th Row: Coach Craig Jean, Chase Johnson, Zach Carter, Alexander Thompson
Not pictured: Logan Walton and Assistant Coach Johnny Tripp
