We’re thankful for all the seniors, historic class, the character they bring, the effort they bring…they built something that I think is only going to grow moving forward.”

SCHS Head Coach Chris Fritz

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – The Shelbyville Central Golden Eagles (14-4-2, 9-0-1) took an early lead against District 10-AAA Runner-up, Ravenwood (13-4-2, 6-1-1), but ultimately fell victim to the Raptors’ relentless attack late, 5-1. 

“They’re an excellent team – state runner-ups last year that lost on penalties – even though they did lose a lot of guys, but you’re being coached at a high level,” SCHS’ Head Coach Chris Fritz said. “Endless travel guys, you’re in the hub of travel soccer in Tennessee – the number-one ranked travel program in the state is in Williamson County – and they cut kids that play travel. Our best bet is to simply grow the game here. They’re a classy program and I wish them the best.”

Yaden Niño, the hero of the District 9-AAA Championship against Columbia, opened the scoring inside the 4th minute for the Golden Eagles, pouncing on a lofted free kick from the halfway line to poke home the first goal of the night and take a surprise 1-0 lead over the visitors. 

However, the Raptors quickly settled into the game, using their pace and physicality to force an errant pass at the back to quickly level things up at 1-1 in the 14th minute. Aiden Carothers connected on a low cross back across the top of the box from the right wing and struck it with venom into the bottom right-corner to get Ravenwood right back in the game. 

The Golden Eagles kept their composure, finding little moments of possession in between long stretches of Ravenwood’s sustained pressure. Despite this, the Raptors found a second goal in the 28th minute with another ball played back across the box from the right side and allowing MaCallan Ryan to tap in the go-ahead goal. 

For the next 11 minutes, Shelbyville began to find its footing, culminating in a breakaway in the final seconds after a sloppy giveaway from Ravenwood that forced the Raptors to commit a tactical foul high up the pitch, earning a yellow card in the process but sending the game to halftime up 2-1. 

“I think our press was a little sloppy at times; we went over it yesterday and we had to re-do it because they changed the way they played from the film that we saw,” Fritz explained. “If we had scored and re-adjusted quicker we probably wouldn’t have given up the two first half goals because at that point we kind of settled down, but most of the game we were living on borrowed time. Their gameplan – win the ball, hit you in transition – created numerous 2-v-1’s in the box. Ben [Betzelberger] stood on his head to make plays. We are blessed to have a keeper of that quality because it could have been a lot worse without him.”

In the second half, the Golden Eagles kept the game within one goal for the first 30 minutes, even threatening with some half-chances of their own from the 60th minute onwards. Despite this, Shelbyville still was forced to chase the game as the clock ticked down into the final ten minutes, forcing a tactical gamble from Fritz to try and send the game into extra-time.

“At the end we made a tactical switch. We had practiced with Arael [Sanchez] up top from centerback – it’s a little gamble, but you’re losing by one – but we were not expecting to give up four because we didn’t change anything outside of moving him up top,” he said.

Less than two minutes after making that switch, the Raptors found their third goal of the night from Aditya Chauhan’s tap-in on a rebound from Carothers’ initial attempt to put the game out of reach, 3-1, in the 70th minute.

In the 72nd minute, Chauhan got his brace in jaw-dropping fashion, finding space 30 yards away from goal and curling one into the top-right corner up and away from the diving Betzelberger to extend the lead to 4-1. Finally, in the 78th minute, Andrew Newman made it 5-1 on a tap-in, sending the Raptors to the Region 5-AAA Championship against Franklin. 

“We got too comfortable in our district, and on the flip of that, we had to play harder games because we didn’t come out of the gates the way we should have in the district, so I think we have tired legs still from district battles because we weren’t winning those games the way we should have right out of the gates,” explained Fritz. “I think you saw those tired legs play out tonight – Yaden Niño in particular because he’s such an endless animal with stamina, but in this game he just didn’t have those legs. He’s had a hard time recovering, a lot of guys are banged up, the depth has hurt us this year. They can sub three or four in at a time and have the same exact quality, and anytime you’re facing a Williamson County team depth is going to grow. Betz [Sophomore forward Johnathan Betzelberger] in particular got a little fatigued so we had to pull him off. I think he is such a bright spot for this team in the future, you can see that he can play at this level and he stood out amongst these guys tonight, there’s just such a bright potential coming for him.”

This team’s 11-player senior class ends their careers with their names forever in the history books after a dominant and unprecedented four-year stretch at Shelbyville Central.

“This year’s seniors smashed our goal record, won four-consecutive district championships which had never happened before, state run as freshmen, regional champs as freshmen, sectionals as freshmen…that’s a historic class. Whatever classes come forward, they’re going to have a hard time matching the level of that,” said Fritz.

“These seniors, I mean the key takeaway is with 15 seconds left, you’re losing 5-1, you see four or five seniors hawking down a guy dribbling,” he continued. “Don’t give up, man. They have that character, and I hope that guys going forward – you saw a lot of young kids here tonight – I hope that they watch this team and watch this and it only builds our future. “We knew we were headed into a ‘Region of Death’ as they call it, and only through hard work and a lot of numbers and a lot of kids playing soccer are we ever going to overcome this, but who’s to say we’ll be here forever? TSSAA is rapidly changing, and soccer is the most lopsided classified sport – there are only three classifications and they spread from 1,000 kids to 3,000 kids. That in essence makes it very uneven across the board, so I’m hoping there is some change in that; I know TSSAA is under a lot of pressure about it.”

“Areal Sanchez, Victor Galvan, and Ryan Quijada did a great job in the backline because they were under tremendous pressure from the quality of that team all night. You saw Victor win the majority of his 50/50 duels at left-back and Areal and Ryan did a lot of cleanup. Rodrigo Hernández, Carlos Velasquez, just moving up and down the field, and we have a lot of guys playing with injuries – nagging knee injuries – and of course Emmanual Leyva, he’s just a tank and fights hard. Oswaldo Torres came on late in the game – he’s been battling injury and probably shouldn’t even be playing but he has that ability to make something special happen – and he had the desire.”

“I’ve just known them all since they were kids,” Fritz concluded about this historic senior class. “I read senior letters to them earlier and said this, watching a kid grow from the time they’re 8 to 18 is more powerful than any win I’ve ever had. I watched them grow as a person and a soccer player. The person behind the badge is always the priority. Watching them grow, seeing the traits they keep, seeing the traits they develop…I grew up with this class. I was a young 20-something coach coaching them in travel and rec, and so I grew up with this class as a coach. That’s something that I’ll never get to feel again, but it’s a special feeling.”

Lastly, Fritz gave a shoutout about his star goalkeeper, Ben Betzelberger, who was one of the biggest reasons that Shelbyville stayed in the game for as long as it did.

“There’s just a character…I don’t know if anybody can be Ben Betzelberger because he’s a guy that loves all people. He loves people – he has people at his house all the time – and he’s just a good leader in every way and just a good human and a good man. They just don’t make ‘em like Ben anymore, and you just can’t…I’ve coached the whole family now, and it’s just a trait,” said Fritz.

“We’re thankful for all the seniors, historic class, the character they bring, the effort they bring…they built something that I think is only going to grow moving forward.” 

Shelbyville ends the year as four-time defending District  Champions.

Ravenwood travels to Franklin on Thursday night in the Region 5-AAA Championship game.