Soccer made in Randolph County

There was a show that ran on TV back in the early 80’s called “Soccer Made In Germany”. It ran on Channel 4, the UNC-TV station on the PBS network, and the program came on, on Saturday afternoons at around 5pm. It featured classic games involving the German national team as they met up with different European teams each week. There was just one announcer and he reminded me a lot of Alistair Cooke.

On Tuesday at 6pm a similar version to the old SMIG show was seen on the field at Eastern Randolph High School. We could have called this Soccer made in Randolph County but it also could be given the sub-title of Soccer made in Mexico.

To get to the key point, Eastern Randolph defeated our Guilford County representative and it wasn’t Howard Coble, although the team came out of Howard’s old neighborhood. ER topped Southeast Guilford 2-1 in boys varsity soccer with Diego Rodriguez and Alberto Gonzales scoring the first half goals for the Wildcats. Austin Dunaker collected the lone goal for the Falcons and it also came in half numero uno.

Amigo, amigo was the word on ER’s side of the field as the ‘Cats started 9 Hispanic kids in their 11 man lineup. Miguel Uribe is Eastern Randolph’s top player and he is also the kicker for the ER football team and was a member of last year’s 3-A State Championship squad.

Eastern Randolph’s coach(Burt Harvey) is member of the Asheboro Police Department in the special detectives investigative unit. He said he was helping out coaching the team because if he wasn’t out there, the coach would probably be somebody from the football team sitting up in the stands grading papers while the game is going on. The APD/ER special forces leader has his ER team at 7-1-2 for the year overall and they are 5-1-1 in the Mid-Piedmont Conference. The coach had 20 years of coaching and playing experience up in Maryland so obviously he is capable and knows what he is doing.

Our special coverage unit from GREENSBOROSports.com goes off on assignment covering Greensboro and Guilford County teams and for Southeast Guilford it has been a long year. In soccer SEG is 0-12-1, but there were a few bright spots on Tuesday. Freshman Jay Goldsmith has played well in goal all season long even though the team record doesn’t reflect his efforts. Goldsmith had around 10 saves in Tuesday’s game and after the two quick goals that came early in the contest Southeast settled down and played good team soccer.

One of our all-stars from George’s Pizza and Sub, Tiger Miller, another Falcon freshman, saw his varsity action of the season and helped out back on the defensive side of the field. For this, his first time playing with the upper-level Varsity, Miller held his own and contributed to the Falcons’ strong second half defensive effort. Goldsmith is really going to be a good one in the future and you may remember his dad, he’s the SEG Lacrosse coach, Mark Goldsmith.(MG is also a local HS basketball official) Bert Alverson’s kid who is a senior for the Falcons was injured with a sprained shoulder but all-in-all, Southeast Guilford is showing improvement.

Soccer made in Germany, Soccer made in Mexico, Soccer made in Maryland, Soccer made in Randolph County with a Guilford County team learning some new lessons; take your pick, it’s a pretty good game.