In what could be the last conference boys soccer match between Elizabethton and Happy Valley – barring a meeting in the district tournament – the Cyclones topped the Warriors 8-nil.

Sophomore Teagan Bernshausen scored a four-goal hat trick, and senior Chris Schaff added two more to the EHS ledger as the Cyclones improved to 6-2 in conference play (8-3 overall).

The Cyclones move up to 2A – in a re-district conference next season – while HV will remain a 1A squad.

“I wanted to play, and I think they did also,” said EHS head coach Bill McClay on playing 10-on-10 with the Warriors who were a man short. “It took us a while to start knocking the ball around. We didn’t do too bad, we passed the ball and got the ball wide. Some of the better opportunities we had in the first half we didn’t finish. We had the guys running to the right spot but just missed.”

The Cyclones got on the board in the fourth minute with freshman Jaxton Holly assisting on a goal by Schaff, who assisted on Bernshausen’s first goal which came in the 25th minute. Benedict Seiffert scored in the 35th minute as EHS took a three-goal lead into halftime.

Brandon Orloff had two scoring chances for HV – the first coming just after the Cyclones took a 1-nil lead. Orloff was running down the home sideline, and Hunter Morrell found him inside the penalty area, but Orloff’s shot was handled on the ground by Cyclone goalkeeper Austin Canter.

Holly got the scoring started for EHS in the second half with a goal a minute in. Bernshausen got into the act again with an assist from Luke Bernshausen and gave EHS a 5-nil lead. Bernshausen scored two quick goals in the 63rd and 65th minutes with both goals unassisted.

The final tally belonged to Schaff who scored in the 74th minute with an assist from Tanner Barb.

“We got a lot of guys some playing time today,” McClay said. “It was a conference game, and we maxed out on points. Unfortunately, we didn’t do as well tiebreaker wise, but that opportunity is still out there.”

The Cyclones have road conference games with Unicoi County and University High remaining as well as nonconference games against David Crockett on Friday and KACHEA which is senior night on May 5th.