Sierra Leone brothers help Grace Christian soccer win in team's first Spring Fling

MURFREESBORO — Last year’s Tennessean boys soccer player of the year Michael Jones accomplished quite a bit in his time at Grace Christian Academy.

Jones, who — along with his seven younger siblings from Sierra Leone — was adopted by Mike and Hayley Jones of  Thompson’s Station in 2013, shattered records at Grace Christian, amassing 152 goals and 52 assists in three seasons. 

He scored 68 goals as a senior last spring. 

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Michael Jones, now a rising sophomore at Trevecca, never got to play in a state tournament. But he was in attendance Tuesday at Richard Siegel Park as the Lions, who feature three of his siblings — junior defender Samuel and eighth-grade midfielders Levi and Malachi — made their state tournament debut with a 10-1 Class A quarterfinal rout of Douglass.

Malachi scored three goals and an assist. Levi added a goal and two assists.

“I tell (my younger siblings) that this opportunity might just come once, so you have to take advantage,” said Jones, who led the Lions to region semifinal appearances in 2016 and 2017. “Just go out and be yourself with the chance to glorify God through the way you play the game.”

Michael Jones, who scored one goal and provided four assists as a freshman at Trevecca, may no longer officially be part of the five-year-old program, but that hasn’t kept him from supporting the squad every chance he gets.

“Every time that I don’t have a game or have stuff to do like homework I’m always at their games,” Jones said.

He has plenty to cheer about, too.

While none of his younger siblings has racked up goals at quite the same pace Michael did, Samuel, Levi and Malachi have certainly helped fill the void left by their older brothers’ graduation.

The Lions are far from a three-man show, though.

“Obviously when you lose a player of Michael’s caliber — 68 goals — that’s a huge concern,” Grace coach David DeFatta said. “But when we looked at our team, we said in the beginning of the year that we’re going to have four or five guys that can score 15 to 20 goals, instead of all 68 coming from one player.

“We’ve done that.”

Heading into Tuesday’s match, Levi and Malachi had scored a combined 35 of the Lions’ 105 goals and provided 15 of their 68 assists. Eighth-grader Shewit Worton had  a team-leading 25 goals for the Lions (18-2), while freshman Sam Barrionuevo accounted for 14.

“Shewit, Maclachi and Levi, I don’t think there’s a school in the state they couldn’t play at,” DeFatta said. “We’ve known for a while that they were going to be a special trio, and we’re excited to have them for the rest of the state tournament and then for four more years.”

Grace will play either Alcoa or Signal Mountain in Wednesday’s 2 p.m. Class A semifinal.

Reach Michael Murphy at mfmurphy@tennessean.com, 615-259-8026, and on Twitter @Murph_TNsports.