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Last home game for men’s team ends in a draw

By Aubrie Holcomb , 07/11/22, 9:45AM HST

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Photo courtesy: Bryson Ledford

Photo courtesy: Bryson Ledford

The Asheville City Men’s team played their last game at Memorial Stadium this Saturday in a game that ended in a 0-0 draw. 

Although the Blues had many close-calls, the team was unable to score. The ACSC defense, with the help of Ryan Bilichuk, helped keep the clean sheet. 

“This game shows how high expectations are this season. The atmosphere on the team is that we are here to win so when we draw we aren’t happy. It’s a great mentality to have,” head coach Scott Wells said. 

Since the game was scoreless, the biggest action of the game was the flurry of yellow cards given throughout the match. The first came in the 26th minute after a Tennessee FC player tackled Kemy Amiche. 

Later, in the 28th minute head coach Scott Wells entered the book after a questionable call by the center ref. 

The second half also saw yellow cards for both teams. The first was in the 47th minute when Asheville’s Oskar Lenz entered the book. Then in the 50th minute another Tennessee FC player pulled down Kemy Amiche. 

The first change of the evening came in the 57th minute when Haruki Yamazaki entered for Oskar Lenz. Then, in the 64th minute Makel Rasheed entered for Dave Neijenhuis and Finn Ballard-McBride entered for Micheal Ketteman. 

Next, goalkeeper Ryan Bilichuk made a save that will likely be USL2 “Save of the Week” material. This saved the Blues from falling into a 1-0 deficit. 

“I know I have a role on the team. I just focus on my role and that is to keep the ball out of the net,” Bilichuk said. 

Looking for fresh legs in the 80th minute, Aiden O’Brien entered the match for Ryan Baer and Daniel Cerezo entered for George Bediko. 

The men’s team has a game and a half remaining in the regular season. The first is a second half makeup game against the Tri-Cities Otters at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 12 at John B Lewis Soccer park. 

“We are going to come out flying, we need to win that game. Going forward we are going to be motivated and we are just going to throw everything at them,” Bilichuk said. 

Then, on Saturday July 16 the boys will travel to South Carolina to face the SC Bantams. A win in either of those games will secure a spot in the 2022 USL2 playoffs.  

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