SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – The Shelbyville Central Golden Eagles (11-3-1, 9-0-1) continued their excellent run of form with a dominant win over District 9-AAA foe, Warren County (8-4-1, 6-3-1), 7-1, on Tuesday night.

Tuesday’s win marked the third-consecutive match that the Golden Eagles scored at least seven goals with all three coming in district play.

“I think we are on a really positive streak,” Golden Eagles’ Head Coach Chris Fritz said postgame, “We have got to be careful about getting comfortable. We had a couple of weeks where we were really trying to find our identity and find the goal scoring and find the way to move the ball as a team and trust each other and play through different defenses, but in the last two weeks, practice has been extremely intense.”

It took until the 18th minute for Shelbyville to break the seal, but the Golden Eagles scored two goals in rapid succession to take a 2-0 lead. First, freshman Abraham Flores poked home a deflected ball in the box to open the scoring, and then Emmanual Leyva opened his account less than 50 seconds later with a calm finish in front of goal to double Shelbyville’s advantage. 

In the 27th minute, senior Yaden Niño scored the hosts’ third goal of the game, but then ten minutes later, three minutes before half-time, Erik Hernandez found himself in space through on goal, slipping the ball underneath the keeper and into the back of the net to put the Pioneers on the board before the break.

However, the Golden Eagles kept up the pressure to begin the second half. In the 44th minute, Areal Sanchez found the back of the net on a bouncing ball in the box off of a free kick to take a 4-1 lead. 

Four minutes later, senior Carlos Velazquez played a perfect through ball to Leyva, allowing the star front-man to score his second goal of the game and extend Shelbyville’s lead to 5-1. 

In the 49th minute – just one minute later – junior Jared Taylor powered into the Pioneer’s penalty area, winning a penalty on a rough sliding challenge before calmly depositing the spot-kick into the net for Shelbyville’s sixth goal of the night. 

Jonathan Betzelberger capped off the scoring for the Golden Eagles in the 65th minute with a wonderful display of skill down the left flank, cutting inside to dribble around the keeper and score the seventh goal of the night for Shelbyville.