Senior Night send-off
Warhorses honor seniors, clinch Western Highlands Conference title
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
March 9, 2021
There were a few quiet moments of reflection, March 8, as seven seniors faced the home crowd in Warhorse Stadium before playing the final regular season home game of their high school soccer careers.
Eighty minutes later, as the dust settled from a 6-0 win over the Madison Patriots on Senior Night, they were celebrating a Western Highlands Conference championship and a 4-goal night for senior Brandon “B.B.” Rojas.
It took Rojas less than six minutes to get Owen on the scoreboard against the Patriots. He found the back of the net again later in the half, and goals by Jason Gun and Michael Borkay gave the Warhorses a 4-0 advantage at the break.
Rojas would add a pair of goals in the second half, as Owen improved to 8-2-1 overall and 7-1 in conference play. The victory clinched a WHC title for the Warhorses, who will travel to Newland, Friday, March 12, to close out the regular season against Avery.
The Warhorses won 20 straight games in the conference from 2017 through 2018 but finished third in 2019, failing to qualify for the postseason for the first time under head coach David Fiest.
The team was poised to return to the top of the conference standings in the fall before the season was suspended due to COVID-19. The Warhorses opened the campaign in January with a 3-3 tie on the road against Smoky Mountain. They would win seven of their next eight matches, including six against conference foes.
“Just getting through an entire season without having to quarantine is an accomplishment itself,” Fiest said. “These players sacrificed so much and had to do a lot of things right just to get a chance to play.”
The Warhorses entered the season with a goal to return to the top of the conference.
“We wanted to get back on track and defend something that’s been ours for quite some time,” the coach said. “We were willing to come out here, do the work and show that we wanted to bring the conference championship back.”
Fiest and assistant coach Chris Nichols challenged their players to be consistent in their approach to the game.
“Most of the players here know what we’re asking for, as far as effort on and off the field is concerned,” Fiest said. “These seven seniors here tonight have helped me implement that consistency through the juniors all the way down to the freshmen.”
All of the Warhorse seniors were on the field to start Monday night’s game against Madison, and the chemistry between the group helped power the team’s offensive outburst.
Rojas has been playing soccer most of his life, and has been a “great” player since stepping onto the field at Owen, according to Fiest. His talent and knowledge of the game, however, had never combined in the way they did on the field against the Patriots.
“That’s the first time,” he said of his 4-goal performance. “It felt amazing.”
The senior credited his teammates and coaches for putting him in position to take 11 shots in the contest.
“Coach had a great plan for us tonight, and we followed it,” Rojas said. “It was the team that made this possible.”
Monday’s game was the largest margin of victory for the Warhorses this season, and comes as they prepare for a return to the NCHSAA state playoffs.
“This game tonight is what we’ve been looking for from our players,” assistant coach Nichols said after the win. “Our message heading into the Avery game will be to build off what we did tonight and go out there and play our game.”
A strong performance against the Vikings will help Owen build momentum as they head into the playoffs.
“They should have the confidence to say, ‘we can do a lot of damage in the playoffs,’” Nichols said. “It doesn’t matter who we play, if we play the way we’re capable of playing, like we did tonight, there is a lot of potential to upset some teams and make a deep run.”
