Tucker Soccer Boys Going For Regional Championship

The Tucker boys’ soccer team is making a run at its first region title in a long time, head coach Tim Newmyer told Neighbor Newspapers in an interview.

The Tigers (9-3-1, 7-1 Region 6AAAA) are now in the lead after taking out Lakeside and Marist, both perennial region title contenders, in two consecutive days.

“We believe we can play with just about anybody,” Newmyer said in the interview. “We don’t back down from anybody. We play hard opponents. We beat Woodward, a former Class AAA No. 2 in the state."

Tucker stumbled against Chamblee and fell into a three-way tie on top of the region standings with two games left to play.

“That was a big dose of humility,” Newmyer said. “We had the confidence after beating Lakeside." He added that the loss to Chamblee may not be such a bad thing after all. “Maybe this was a mixed blessing and maybe this was something we really needed at this point,” he said.

Newmyer said he is refocusing his team on winning the region. “I don’t think we have any quote on quote superstars,” he told the paper. “We have a couple guys who play over at GSA, but for the most part, we are solid in most of our positions. We try to play within our system, which is one- and two-touch passes, attack in numbers, get back in transition and play unselfishly,” Newmyer said.

Newmyer said the team’s captains, junior sweeper Josiah Saydee and junior goalie Steven Duffy, have led the team on the field.

“Josiah is our starting sweeper and he is tough as all get out back there,” Newmyer said. “And then Steven Duffy has been huge in a bunch of games.” He called Duffy "an outstanding goalie" but conceded that he has struggled with penalty kicks.

Still, Duffy is credited as a major reason the team is sitting in first place in Region 6AAAA.