Keenan Burris has been coaching soccer so long, he’s gone through several sets of brothers on his squads.
The run of Zhividze brothers ends this season with senior forward Levan Zhividze. Well, at least for a while.
“I guess they got a really little brother, but he’s a few years away,” Burris said.
But with such a young lineup for the Plainsmen this spring, Burris is thankful to have an experienced Zhividze on the field.
Zhividze assisted both of Evergreen’s goals as the Plainsmen beat Mountain View 2-0 to improve to 2-0 in the 3A Greater St. Helens League.
“We’re very young; we play of a lot of young kids,” Burris said. “We play a lot of different kids. We use a lot of juniors and sophomores, and they’ve done a good job.”
The match started out evenly until Evergreen started creating some solid scoring challenges midway through the first half. Despite that, the Plainsmen appeared headed to a 0-0 tie at halftime until Zhividze helped set up the Plainsmen’s first goal.
The senior corralled an entry pass in front of the Mountain View goal and tapped off to sophomore Elijah Lavin, who shot the ball past the Mountain View goalkeeper for a 1-0 lead in the final minute of the first half.
Evergreen held onto the lead as Mountain View got a couple of solid scoring chances in the second half.
“Their system of play they came out with in the second half was a little different,” Burris said. “(Mountain View coach Dustin Johnson) did a good job of coming out and throwing something a little different at us. It took us a while to adjust to that, but once we did, we played better.”
The Plainsmen’s defensive backline and goalkeeper Gabe Domingo kept the 1-0 lead intact until Evergreen could get the sealing goal with five minutes to play.
“We’ve got some 6-1 guys on our back line,” Burris said. “Last year, we had to drop some different kids back to defend. But this year, we’ve been able to keep a set back line, and that’s really helped.”
Again, it was Zhividze setting the clinching goal. The senior took back-to-back corner kicks, sending the second one across the face of the goal where sophomore Marcos Martinez headed it across the goal line before a Thunder defender could clear it away.
Coupled with the win by Hudson’s Bay over Prairie on Tuesday, Evergreen finds itself along atop the 3A GSHL early in league play at 2-0.
“I didn’t know where we would sit this year (in the league), how good we’d be,” Burris said. “But offensively, we’re pretty good, and defensively, with the young kids coming together, I think we’ll be pretty solid going forward.”
