A nice size crowd came out to watch two High Schools, separated by about 8 miles, battle each other on the soccer pitch. About half the crowd brought their own chairs, the other half risked sitting on bleachers built in 1952. For once, no need to talk about officiating; it was a well officiated match.
FIRST HALF
NorthWood had to do without the services of offensive midfieldsman Conner Beckwith and striker Eddie Salinas due to groin and MCL injuries respectively. The lineup was therefore shuffled around a bit. Cam Seitz became the other forward, supporting Ryan Lincoln. By the time the night was over, Cam Seitz turned into NorthWood's new Jose Oquendo by playing just about every position on the field. And he did it well.
The firs ten minutes of the game saw two teams trying to feel each other out and once both settled down it became clear this one would go down to the wire. Bremen ended up with very few opportunities in the first half and NW had some. In the 10th minute a Cesar Salinas free kick ended up near Cam who saw his effort miss the frame. A 12th minute set piece from the right was swatted out by the goalie. The rebound was headed by Cesar but it missed acuracy. The most dangerous attack came from the Panthers in the 30th minute when Ryan Lincoln and Cam hooked up in the box for a give and go. Cams shot hit the post and went off the outside of the post.
SECOND HALF
The succesful NW kick off put the Panthers on the offensive third of the field. Play went back and forth with both teams hustling. Bremen was rarely very dangerous. Most of our midfielders and forwards will remember Bremen's number 22, who should have been listed as Jack Hack in the program. Justice was eventually served when he had to come off the field with what looked to be a groin injury (he probably pulled it himself). In the 53rd, Lincoln went up for a header and injuring himself in the process. His hand injury forced him to come off the field. While discussing the injury with Ryan and the Bremen trainer, supersub Trent Jacobs scored a goal (according to Coach Duerksen). I missed the goal so the second hand eyewitness report says that Daniel Villa split two defenders and reached Trent Jacobs who in typical Jacobs style went down as he kicked the ball, hitting (the ball that is)the back of the net, 1-0! All this occured in the 55th minute of play.
In the 59th minute Cesar realized he had not gotten his yellow yet for the day and made sure he took care of that statistic by getting noted in the referees diary. That was not the only card issued by the center ref. In the 68th minute, Cam Seitz went in for a challenge. He won the challenge and passed the ball to forward Ryan Lincoln who would have had an opportunity to attack. But while Cam went down after the pass, a Bremen defender (#4) thought it was best to exchange some unpleasantries with Cam. He kicked him in the back, side and arm, from what I was told, right in front of the center official. The game was stopped and a hard red card was issued. The center referee explained to the coaches that Bremen's #4 tried a "foot for face" kick thus resulting in the ensuing red. The Panthers were able to hold on to their lead, despite some last minute efforts from Bremen.
This was a well played game by NorthWood and saw a great effort from all players. The entire defense did a very nice job, the midfielders worked very hard and the forwards played smart and hard. Kronk had probably one of his best games and Jake was very efficient in the left back position. Maliq was, as usual, very solid between the woodwork. A good result that encouraged the coaches because of the progress that was shown by the team.
NOTES
The varsity will not have practice Monday (Labor Day). This will give some players time to recuperate from their injuries. The JV WILL have practice. This is because they have a game on Tuesday at Westview. There is a small possibility that some injured sophomores might travel with the JV as part of a rehab assignment, but probably not.
Four JV players traveled with the team to watch the game (Caleb, Clayton, Eusebio and Kyle) as well as coach Matterson.
Today's practice will be a typical Friday practice.
Good Luck to "Hoover's Henchmen" as they will try (and succeed)to beat Concord tonight!
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