On Thursday night, Eastside and Riverside girls’ soccer will go to battle for the first time this season.
The matchup — one that consistently circles back around in the postseason — will look far different than it has in years past.
Both the Lady Eagles and Lady Warriors graduated a massive portion of their goal-scoring output last year. For Eastside, it was seniors Payton Nutzman, Camille Carter, and Kennedy Craig. Those three combined for over 90 percent of Eastside’s goals the past three seasons.
“Through Payton, Camille, and Kennedy together, and that added up to pretty much all of our goals and all of our assists for the last three years,” said Eastside head coach David Craig. “Those three were the majority of our offensive output.”
For Riverside, it was seniors Charlotte Bozarth and Lily Zeimer, a pair who contributed over 70 percent of Riverside’s goals the last two seasons.
But don’t tell either team that it’s supposed to slow them down.
Both Eastside and Riverside have taken off on a blazing start this season. Eastside is 7-0 overall and 3-0 in region play, outscoring teams 23-1 so far. Riverside is 3-0 in region play, outscoring 5-A 2 opponents 14-1 in those three games.
For both teams, it’s not been a matter of who they lost after last season. It’s about who’s stepped up to fill those goalscoring needs.
For Riverside, it’s been largely on the shoulders of sophomore star Piper Grubbs. Grubbs has seven goals in the Lady Warriors’ three region games so far, including a hat trick on Monday night in a 4-0 win vs. Byrnes.
“This team knew coming into the season that there were some very big shoes to fill with Charlotte Bozarth and Lily Ziemer graduating,” said Riverside head coach Kristin Rollins. “Piper has been one of the girls who has really stepped up and said, ‘I want to go.’ She’s very powerful with her ability to control the ball and control the field.”
“The biggest step for me in my growth this year has been my confidence,” said Grubbs. “I’ve been used to just crossing the ball, but this year, I’ve been shooting it a lot more.”
Those extra shots have led to early-season success for Grubbs and the Lady Warriors. Senior Landry Franklin and junior Ava Gensemer have also contributed multiple goals each this season.
Just seven minutes down the road at Eastside, it’s been a balanced effort to replace the graduated Lady Eagle goal scorers.
That balanced effort, however, has been spearheaded by senior star Lydia Parker. Parker has six goals for Eastside already this season.
“It’s not easy losing the Gatorade Player of the Year,” said Parker of former Eastside star Nutzman, who tallied 35 goals and 14 assists last year. “It’s not easy losing any of those seniors we had last year. The first thing for us this year was seeing who could step into that role and score some goals.
“I started playing at the nine spot [striker] in club soccer this fall, which was where Payton played. That way, I was prepared to fill into that role if needed.”
Eastside head coach David Craig played Parker at striker in the Lady Eagles’ preseason scrimmages, and after Parker scored several times, he decided to keep her there.
“I’m no Payton Nutzman, I’ll tell you that,” said Parker, laughing. “But I try my best.”
Also powering Eastside’s early-season run of form? One of the best back lines and goalkeepers in the state.
GK Emmy Rikard — a senior Furman commit — has allowed zero goals in seven games this season. That’s come from several big saves, along with some stout play from the wall of defenders in front of her.
“Having a different situation on offense this year, I think we knew there would be some games where we’d have to claw out some 1-0 wins,” said Rikard. “So that falls on us to play strong in the back and not give up any easy goals.”
“Last year, we’d be up by a lot of goals early into some games,” said senior defender Haley Knarr. “This year, we didn’t really know what it would look like as much. So we’ve just made sure to be on our toes.”
With a talented, high-scoring offense in Riverside coming to town on Thursday to face Eastside’s solid defense, it’s something of an unstoppable force vs. an immovable object.
Both teams are confident they’ll come out on top.
“I definitely feel like this year, with the way we’re playing, we’ve got what it takes,” said Grubbs. “We know we can play well and play with [Eastside] and get the win against them.”
“We’re taking each game as we go, but we know Riverside is going to be hard competition,” said Rikard. “And I know we’re all looking forward to it. We love the rivalry of it all.”
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