Youngs sets record in stadium debut

August 23, 2016 at 12:05a.m.

BEAVER TOWNSHIP

The South Range boys soccer team had a productive Monday.

The Raiders debuted a new head coach and home field while also breaking a school record during a 10-0 thumping of East Palestine.

Junior forward Brandon Youngs needed a little more than a half of work to own his school’s record for most goals in a game with six.

He had his way with the Bulldogs, scoring a hat trick in about seven minutes. Balls were literally bouncing his way.

After beating the Bulldogs goalkeeper Aaron Hays with a shot, Youngs got his head to the ball, sending it arcing into the air towards the net. It looked like the ball would go over the cross bar, but dropped in.

For goal No. 3, an East Palestine defender managed to get the ball away from Youngs as he was making a run, but just managed to push the ball closer to the penalty area, giving Youngs an even better scoring chance.

Youngs converted a cross from Logan Baer before getting goal No. 5 off another fortuitous bounce. A Raiders’ corner kick was cleared into his path and he volley the ball into the top left corner. By then, he knew about the record.

“Once my teammates told me about it, I got really excited and I really wanted to go in and score that last goal,” Youngs said. “I was pretty pumped when I slugged in that last goal.”

Two goals from Canaan Johnson pushed the Raiders to a 7-0 lead at halftime. Youngs got his record goal early in the second half and he sat the rest of the contest.

South Range coach Mike Bailey was fine with letting Youngs chase the record book.

“He’s a special talent and he deserved a shot at that record,” Bailey said.

Bailey, a 2002 Salem grad, replaced Joe Staffeld as head coach. Bailey previously coached at Carrollton and was surprised to see a job open at a school coming off a Division III state finals appearance.

“I was shocked, I was completely caught off guard by it,” Bailey said. “Once that job opened up, I knew it was one I wanted to throw my hat in for.”

Goals nine and 10 came off the feet of Reese Babuder and Liam Abrigg, respectively.

The Raiders have lost five starters from last seasons state run, which ended with a 9-0 loss to Cincinnati Country Day. They got there with a very conservative style of play, but Bailey looks to shake that up.

“We doing some things different from the past. We’re a little more possession style now and the kids have done a phenomenal job responding to it,” Bailey said. “On defense, they played a back four, but we’re now a sweeper-stopper team. They’ve been taking it all in.”

High turnover from a high-powered team is no biggie for Youngs, who’s been a part of a state final four and a state finals appearance.

“I think we’re going to be good this year again. Two years ago we lost a lot of seniors. Last year we weren’t expected to do as well as we did and came through and did better than the year before,” Youngs said. “This year, we can surprise more people and hopefully win a state final.

“We’ve got that in us.”