Senior Night turned out to be a cool and windy night but despite the weather, the fans pushed the turnstiles quite a few times. On tap tonight was the fixture against the 13-1-1 Rockies. It was probably the first time in NW soccer history we would face an opponent this late in the season with just one loss. Plymouth is not in the top 20 or Honorable Mention but for some reason only falls in the "Team To Watch" category.
Before the game all seven seniors were recognized with their parents and were given personalized blankets with the NW Panthers soccer emblem, name and number. The mothers were given flowers, except for Cesar who kept the flowers to give to his girlfriend. The seniors who were recognized were Michael Balogh, Bobby Delafuente, Kasey Grendys, Cesar Salinas, Cam Seitz, Daniel Villa and Patrick Thompson.
FIRST HALF
The wind advantage in the first half went to the Panthers who were playing from right to left from the coaches' perspective. Mr. Yoder manned the booth, and did a great job. The booth assistant and the Panthers' best cheerleader was the well rounded college student, former Holy Cross, current IUSB and future Purdue student Robbie Balogh.
It became clear early on that Plymouth is a technically skilled team with great passing abilities. Add to that the fact that they have 12 seniors with one of them having superb skill (#2 Vervynckt) and you have a very good NLC team that can come at you from different angles of attack all night long. Which is exactly what they ended up doing.
Already in the third minute, Plymouth had an open chance but the save by keeper Michael Balogh prevented the 1-0. NW was able to create some counters but they were few and far between. Most of the play, especially in the first half took place between the two 18's.
Plymouth substituted one of their players who, according to coach Duerksen, was a Chia Pet, but it did not lower the level of play.
Late in the second half a long pass ended up in front of Lincoln just outside the box but he took a touch to his left in an effort to circumevent the Rockies defense instead of one touch shooting it and the opportunity was lost.
Jake was given the task to mark Vervynckt but when coach Duerksen noticed that Vervynckt was coming up from a midfield position the team went from manmarking to the double stopper set up.
SECOND HALF
This half was dominated by Plymouth. Most of the play took place on our defensive third of the field but with great efforts from Kasey, Cesar, Cam, Kronk, Maliq (!) and Collin defensively, the Panthers were able to withstand wave after wave of Rockies coming at them. In the 63rd minute a quick counter went to Lincoln who hit a great cross from the left side to Noodle. Noodle had a great touch but saw it go just wide to the right. This NLC battle went to the last minute. Plymouth took the ball to NW time and time again, resulting in quite a few corners. One cross in the box came off Joshs' foot wrong but a miraculous save, courtesy of Maliq Taylor, preserved the draw for the Panthers.
The tie does a lot for the Panthers. If we play .500 the rest of the way, it will guarantee a winning season and at this point we still have a chance of getting up to 10 victories as well. All in all, this was a great effort, especially defensively, from all players with a great result. After upsetting Bethany on senior night last year, it is great to see that trend continue!
NOTES
Next up is Bethany Christian this Thursday (tomorrow) at Bethany. JV starts at 5pm, followed by the Varsity at 6:45 pm. After that we have one game left. We will travel to Angola on Saturday (bus leaves at 9 am).
We are on the road the rest of the year but hope to spend a lot of time at our home away from home, Lakeville.
The JV gave away a 1-0 lead in the last few minutes of the game but still ended up with a 1-1 tie. Tim, coach Mattern's "Honduran Assassin", scored the lone goal.Tim now has six goals, Taylor 7 for the season.
The Varsity's record is now 6-5-2 (1-4-2 NLC). The JV record is also 6-5-2.
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