It wasn’t the way anybody pictured celebrating senior night.

White County shocked the Warren County High School soccer team on its home field, winning 1-0 on a night where the Pioneers honored seven seniors.

Will Cheek, who grew up in Warren County, scored the game’s lone goal to help the Warriors avenge a 4-0 loss earlier this season to the Pioneers.

“We had 40 shots and they had one. Theirs went in,” said Pioneer coach Matt Jackson. “We should have had a lot of goals. Giving credit where credit is due – they played the best game I’ve seen them play and their coach said the same. My players all said they were a different team.”

The Pioneers were without several players, including sophomore John Jackson, who scored in the big win April 4. The absence of last year’s district midfielder of the year seemed to take its toll on Warren County, which was unable to score despite several great looks.

“We had some major players missing. John is a leader on the field and keeps everything flowing and gives the team direction. We were badly missing him,” said Jackson.

Warren County made one last push in the final minute, getting a pair of corner kicks to challenge the Warriors. Both times, the Pioneers came up empty and the final whistle followed moments later.

Before the game, the Pioneers celebrated the careers of Wesley Pepper, Jax Griffith, Rob Phillips, Ethan Cowan, Alex Flores, Andres Perez and Jordan Ruiz. 

The Pioneers will conclude the season with four straight road games, including stops in Shelbyville and Franklin County next week. Warren County will wrap up district play with a match against Cookeville Tuesday, April 30.

Jackson is hopeful his team will get healthy in the next two weeks before the start of the district tournament.

“Our focus now is on a district playoff game with either Cookeville or Rhea County,” said Jackson. “We are getting the team in a position to try to beat whichever team we have to face. It will help if I can get all my injured players back and not get any new ones.”