The good, the bad and the ugly of a soccer rivalry

WRV keeper Brayden Borders grabs the ball before Bloomfield's Hank Skomp can get to it for a shot. WRV won 5-2 Tuesday.

As Linton and Sullivan prepare to meet on the gridiron for another year, the newest rivalry in the county is catching up to it in prestige. The Greene County soccer series between WRV and Bloomfield is everything we love and sometimes hate in sports.

It’s intense, physical, bragging rights are on the line and sometimes kids take things too far.

I love this rivalry. Greene County only has two soccer schools and WRV and Bloomfield have grown into sectional contenders. These schools have embraced the sport and it is paying off with fan support.

Even though Bloomfield lost Tuesday, even their coach, Andrew Bladen saw the positives of a big crowd at WRV.

“You saw how big it was out here. Just growing the game more and more. Even though it didn’t go our way we had a ton of fans out here,” Bladen said.

Passion for the boys game was especially high. Bloomfield won last year’s game 5-3 as the score became a chant every time Bloomfield played WRV in another sport. The two programs have used the rivalry to grow. They have also used the rivalry in not so nice ways.

WRV’s soccer field is in easy shouting distance from the State Road 54. I have been told Bloomfield soccer fans will yell at whoever is on the field when they pass through Switz City. Another WRV soccer player told me he was heckled when he attended the Bloomfield Apple Festival.

Sadly, this rivalry gets uglier than that. A month ago, I posted a video where I interviewed the upperclassmen on WRV’s soccer team. A Bloomfield social media account ran by students made the choice to criticize the weight of WRV junior Briar English in the video. As teenagers do, it became a running gag, as somehow cinnamon rolls became involved. From what I have been told it was an ugly situation folks.

Whatever happened, English was fired up for the game and scored three goals. Two came in the first 10 minutes. English posed for photos with cinnamon rolls after the game to put an exclamation mark on it all. Overweight people don’t get a soccer hat-trick.

This rivalry is so big that a few WRV players wanted to make sure I would interview them if the Wolverines won. This was seven months in advance of the game back in February.

This game matters and it matters for these two schools in ways that will ripple for the next year (or they might meet in sectionals).

What is crazy though is that WTHI and WTWO were not there for this. Maybe it needs a name. I have heard “War on 54” but it does not make sense. Bloomfield plays soccer on U.S. 231 and War on 54 fits Linton vs. Eastern Greene in girls basketball better if you ask me.

In Britain, they use the word “Darby” to describe a soccer game between local teams. In Spain and Mexico, it might be “Clásico.” So, here is to the Greene County Darby or the Green County Clásico. May it continue to provide the best in sports and minimize the parts we don’t like.

Nathan Pace is the Sports Editor of the Greene County Daily World and can be reached at npace@gcdailyworld.com. His Low Budget Sports Show airs weekly on Facebook Live.