The Lebanon News | Anthony Stevens | Photo Credits: Keith Ray and Photogenius
HONAKER — With the Honaker girls’ and boys’ soccer teams advancing to the VHSL Class 1 Final Four, many players were recognized with All-State honors. Headlining for the Tigers are the sister and brother combo of McKenzie Lowe (Goalkeeper) and Malachi Lowe (Defenseman), awarded first-team honors.
“It’s great that we both got to go to the state semis together, and that’s really cool,” stated McKenzie Lowe. “We’re both all-region and all-state players, so it’s a great feeling. It wasn’t just handed to us, there was a lot of hard work.”
Mackenzie Lowe works well in goal, making it difficult for the opposition to score.
“I try to be aggressive after the ball and that helps a lot,” McKenzie said. “Soccer is definitely my sport. I’ve been playing since I was four years old. My freshman year was my first time being a goalkeeper.”
McKenzie put up tremendous numbers, posting nine shutouts her junior season. She had 143 saves with only 22 goals against for an impressive 87 percent save rate.
“McKenzie is so mentally strong,” said coach Alicia Musick. “When she is determined that nothing gets by her, then nothing gets by her. When you play 80 minutes and she had nine games that no one scored on her, that’s hard to do.”
The 2024 soccer season ended at Roanoke College’s Kerr Stadium with a heartbreaking sudden-death loss to Northumberland on penalty kicks.
“Going into the match we knew we were capable of winning,” commented McKenzie. “It was an unfortunate loss. There was a ton of pressure. I wasn’t nervous going into the game, I felt I needed to be confident, but I was nervous when we started doing penalty kicks.”
The battle against Northumberland was a memorable match that won’t soon be forgotten.
“I wake up thinking about it all the time,” said Coach Musick. “It was a game, you just lay it all out there and the outcome is the outcome. It doesn’t mean Northumberland was the better team, it’s like a foul shot in basketball. One shot doesn’t mean that teams are better. My girls put up an amazing fight the whole game. I wouldn’t have wanted anyone in goal other than McKenzie in that situation. We were just a little unlucky and couldn’t make our shots. The girls made history even getting to that point and being that close was a great achievement, winning or not.”
McKenzie was joined by three teammates who made the All-State second team. Junior Kiley Musick was a midfielder, who finished with 14 goals.
“Kiley switched positions from forward to center midfielder this season,” Coach Musick said. “She was hesitant about it but having her in that position helped the team. Kiley was able to get back and help on defense in games that we needed her to. She scored our game-winning goal in the state quarterfinals to send us to the Final Four.”
Junior forward, Julia Barton totaled nine goals this season.
“Julia has been All-State three years,” Musick said. “She’s one of those players that came back and played defense a lot. Julia stepped up and helped lead the team in attitude and positivity.”
Senior Kedryn Hess was named as a midfielder.
“Kedryn was also All-State last year, she plays our right-side wing,” remarked Musick. “She has improved so much from when I started three years ago. Kedryn is going to be missed and it will be a hard spot on the field to fill. She can fly and reads the field so well. Her skill level and presence will be missed next year.”
The Honaker girls will have to replace eight seniors, they had seven juniors who will return.
“We just have seven back, hopefully, we can recruit some more,” Musick said. “I want to build the program back and hopefully make another state appearance.”
BOYS
Malachi Lowe led the Tigers to an outstanding year in his senior campaign. Lowe was awarded first-team honors for his effort.
“Malachi is a great young man,” Honaker boys coach Wilburn Johnson said. “He played center-back for us. Along with Landon Viers, they both are extremely good back there. Malachi is just an exceptional athlete, to be on the football, basketball, and soccer teams that won Region 1D championships. Malachi is one of the few players I’ve ever had that understood the game overall and he could use his left and right foot. That helped him tremendously, most kids are one-foot dominant.”
Four Tigers were named second team. Two juniors Thomas Ball and Jaxon Dye each scored 27 goals. Senior Jaylon Hart was close with 26 goals and senior Landon Viers contributed 10 goals. The Tigers scored 117 goals with those four along with Malachi (eight goals) accounting for 98 or 84 percent of goals scored.
“It was a great year,” stated Johnson. “That group scored a lot of goals, supplying most of our offense.”
In the final game, three quick goals from West Point left the Honaker boys a large hole to dig out of. The Tigers struggled falling to the Pointers 8-0 in a season-ending loss in the state semifinals.