The Ashley Ridge boys’ soccer team is working towards earning a playoff bid.
The Swamp Foxes are having a great year, especially for a start-up program.
The team improved its record to 10-4 Wednesday with a 5-0 win over Edisto.
The Foxes only losses have been to two 4-A schools and perennial AA power Bishop England.
Unfortunately, the Bishops are in Ashley Ridge’s region, so despite their 5-2 mark in region play, the Foxes had to settle for second place.
The AA playoff seeding is based on rankings, so the losses to top ranked BE did some damage.
However, if the Foxes finish the regular season strong, they should be ok.
“Right now we are sixth in the state and holding on,” Ashley Ridge coach Nate Harris said.
“The kids have done a great job staying composed and that’s really hard for a team that is so young. They are very modest and keep working hard. We have big games against Andrews and Hanahan coming up that will impact the playoff picture for us. We need to do well against them.”
The win over Edisto will help. Harris is hoping it will also give his team momentum as the regular season winds down.
“This is one of those games we highlighted at the beginning of the year,” he said. “We wanted to play some of the better AA teams and Edisto traditionally makes the playoffs. I think they expected to win tonight and we did well not crumbling under that pressure.”
Freshman Nick Kennedy helped Ashley Ridge get off to a fast start Wednesday with a pair of first-half goals.
In the 54th minute, striker Joseph Goodwin scored for a 3-0 Ashley Ridge lead.
In the 69th minute, Gabe Thompson worked his way toward the net, but an Edisto defender managed to get a foot on the ball before he could take his shot.
Brandon Hughes was there to pick up the loose ball and send a shot into the left side of the net to cushion the Foxes’ lead.
The final score of the game came after a heads-up play by Kennedy. Ashley Ridge was awarded a free kick in front of the goal and before Edisto could get organized, Kennedy quickly passed to Tyler Haney, who drove to the right side of the goal for a wide open-shot that beat the Edisto keeper.
Ashley Ridge goalkeeper Elias Moreno earned his seventh shutout of the season.
“Moreno has done a great job as a freshman and the defense as a whole has been excellent,” Harris said. “We start four freshmen on defense but they work great together. The entire defense is responsible for those shutouts.”

Contact Roger Lee @ 873-9424 ext. 213 or rlee@journalscene.com.