CBA-Greene Central

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on August 20, 2010 1:47 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Michael Fearney patiently watched his older teammates, soaked it all in and knew his time would come.

Bounced between Charles B. Aycock's varsity and junior varsity soccer squads as a junior last season, Fearney is quickly proving his chance to be a varsity starter was worth the wait.

Fearney scored three times and had an assist in the Golden Falcons' 4-0 non-conference victory over Greene Central on Thursday night.

Fearney's cross into the 18-yard box landed right in front of a diving Tyler Lynch, who headed the ball into the net, to give Aycock a 1-0 lead in the 16th minute.

"Michael being left-footed is very, very useful," said Golden Falcons head coach Kevin Adkins. "There's not a lot of left-footed ball players. He had a nice cross to Lynch in the first half and I thought that really went well."

Midway through the first half, the Golden Falcons began linking together passes with consistency and pressuring the Rams' defense. Fearney gathered up a rebound in the box and delivered a high shot that found the back of the net in the 38th minute.

"I just made sure I was out in the open in open space and made sure I made my runs in," said Fearney. "I was in the right place at the right time. Last year, I looked at the seniors and learned from them and that's how I play now."

Fearney scored just four minutes into the second half after collecting a loose ball in the box and firing into the goal. He completed his hat trick four minutes later with a tailing shot off a free kick from the left of the goal.

"This feels good," said Fearney. "I'm hoping to score more."

Playing its first game of the season, Greene Central struggled to maintain possession and complete passes with accuracy.

"That's one of those things that we've got to work on a lot," said Rams head coach Enrique Benitez. "That's one of those things that will change once conference play comes around. Hopefully, by then that's one of those things that we'll have together."

With experience in the midfield, defense and in goal, Adkins believes Aycock becomes much more dangerous with another goal scorer in Fearney to go alongside Lynch, Chase Thompson and Juan Pina.

"That would open up a whole different bag of worms," said Adkins. "I think Chase and Juan, once they settle down and quit trying so hard, the goals will flow for them. I think the midfield is playing fairly well and the defense is playing really well."

Brandon Davis and Nick Hilker combined for the shutout in goal. Davis finished with eight saves.

Greene Central (0-1-0 overall) plays host to North Lenoir on Monday while the Golden Falcons (2-0) entertain Wilson Fike on Tuesday.