Banner Sports Writer
It all came down to the final regular season match to decide the layout of this year’s District 5-AAA tournament.
@:Top-seeded Ooltewah gains a bye for the tournament’s opening round, while second-seeded Cleveland will play host to seventh-seed Rhea County at 7 p.m. Saturday evening.
The Raiders opened their 2012 season against the Eagles and came away with a 5-1 win in the match.
Sixth-seeded Walker Valley will travel to McMinn County to take on the third-seeded Tribe. That match will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday.
In their previous meeting the Cherokees came out on the winning end of a 3-1 final agains the Mustangs.
Closing out the first round will be a match that pits fourth-seeded Soddy-Daisy agains the fifth-seeded Bears of Bradley Central. The match will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday at Soddy-Daisy’s field.
It was a 4-2 affair last time the two teams met, with the Trojans taking home the win.
Both second round games will begin at 7 p.m. on Tuesday evening with the winner of Cleveland/Rhea facing the winner of McMinn County/Walker Valley at the home of the higher seed, and the winner of Soddy-Daisy/Bradley Central taking on the Ooltewah Owls on their home turf.
Championship play will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday with the higher seed playing host. District awards will also be presented that night.
Other news to come out of the meeting included the institution of two, 10 minute, ‘golden goal’ periods. The periods will kick in at the end of regulation during district matches that are tied at the end of the 80 minutes.
Coaches hope that the extra periods will reduce tied matches and end stalemates that appear when it’s time to select tournament seeding. The change will take effect in the fall 2012 girls’ season.
Another change that was voted into existence is the requirement to have three officials at every district match, up from two.
Due to the bylaws, the change in officiating can not officially be passed until October and take effect until the next boys’ season, but the decision met almost unanimous support.
