Bristol Herald Courier | Tim Hayes | Photo Credit: Honaker High School
HONAKER, Va. – Honaker High School senior Jaxon Dye has a sore knee, aching back and a deep desire to compete.
“He’s just incredibly tough to start with,” said Honaker coach Wilburn Johnson. “We have to tape him up every day and he looks like the Six Million Dollar Man when he walks out there.”
The strong-willed senior was a bionic dude on Monday as he produced a major moment.
Dye’s header off a corner kick from Eric Ball found the back of the net in the 70th minute and that goal turned out to be the difference as Honaker posted a 2-1 win over the Patrick Henry Rebels in the finals of the VHSL Region 1D boys soccer tournament at Fuller Field.
Honaker (11-6) repeated as regional champs and will host either Auburn or Eastern Montgomery in a VHSL Class 1 state quarterfinal match on Tuesday, June 10.
The Tigers topped Patrick Henry (6-10-2) for the third time this season, but it was far from easy. Honaker had recorded a 4-0 win over the Rebels on May 16.
“We thought this would be a blowout after beating them 4-0 in the last game,” Dye said. “Coming into this game I thought everybody had their heads high that Patrick Henry was going to come over here and roll over but that wasn’t the case. It’s the regional championship and both teams were here to play hard.”
The match was deadlocked for the first 60 minutes.