HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Excelsior Rotterdam - FC Groningen 2-2

The last place team from Rotterdam (smallest of the three pro teams from the harbour city)was host to the Pride of the North. In Woudestein Stadium (tiny at 3,500 seats), the fans would see FC Groningen go up by two goals, only to give up a PK and a very late goal to only come away with a hugely disappointing draw.

OG/AC tonight, regular time

From 7:30 -9 we will have OG.

U16 ousted in first round; U19 wins first round game

THE FC GRONINGEN U19 TEAM RESTING AFTER WINNING THE FIRST ROUND GAME
The U16 played well but not good enough to win Saturday night. Some opportunities did not result in goals and with a one goal loss it was time to call it a session. But back for more in 2011. The U19 faced Chiqui Auto Sales (Elkhart Chr & Elkhart Central) for the third time this season. After a one goal loss and a draw, the table were turned and we came away with a 2-1 win (Hambryce & Seitz goals). The quuarter finals game was a matchup with Colt. The game seemd under control at 2-1 but a nice chance that did not make it into the net saw a momentum switch resulting in a 7-1 loss. The team was ready to go home. Good luck to Josh on Tuesday, we will be thinking about him. Surgery is set for 9:30 I believe.

FC Groningen - AZ 2-0 (1-0)

Two Tim Matavz goals defeat AZ. FC Groningen only 2 points out of first place. The FC stays undefeated at home in the first half of the season.

U16 draws, U19 loses

The U16 should have come home with a victory but gave up a late 4-3 lead to draw against Parker FC. The U19 faced a NR/Concord combo built on arrogance. Final score 8-2; the game was close in the first and just got ugly in the second. The U19 will play their final regular season game this Thursday vs, FC Neverdead. A win will draw them even in the standings with FC Neverdead.

FC Groningen - Vitesse Arnhem 4-1 (3-0)

Granqvist 1-0, Matavz 2-0, Andersson 3-0 and Sparv 4-1. Passed Ajax, now #3 in the standings!

U16 wins, U19 loses

The FC Groningen16 beat Piano Market 9-0. Taylor was the leading scorer with 6. The FC Groningen19 started out slow against Chiqui Auto Sales and fell behind 3-0 before coming back 3-2 with Connor and Noodle goals to only fall short despite plenty of opportunities. Both teams did play well and both teams really worked the ball well; it was actually enjoyable to watch both teams play. Game times for next week; U16 on Saturday 12/11 at 10 pm vs. Parker FC. If the U16 wins they will overtake FC Parker in the standings for 8th or 9th place (currently in 10th out of 16 teams). The U19 plays Sunday 12/12 at 8 pm vs. FC Neverdead. Neverdead is in 6th, U19 in 8th (of 12 teams). Coach Seitz is working on getting commitments from U16 & U19 players for the next session. This coming weekend will be the final regular season game for the first session. The weekend of December 18 & 19 will be the tournament.

U19 - Lakeland 10-3

Well played game with some very quick goals to start the game (it was 1-1 before most players even touched the ball). Josh came out firing and Connor put some in as well despite a facial meeting with the wall. I believe the score was 8-1 at the half so that was very entertaining. The second half was not as energetic and the Lakers scored a couple to come back to 8-3 before we stepped it up a little bit to get the two goals back. It could have been three after a beautiful move in the box from Collin but he whiffed on the shot attempt. Nice wins this weekend for both teams!

Roda JC - FC Groningen 1-0

DISAPPOINTING 1-0 AWAY LOSS....STILL IN THIRD PLACE.YOUTUBE VIDEO SHOWS THE GOAL IN 19 SECOND VIDEO.

U16 - Elkhart Flames 6-0

A nice performance all the way around despite the fact that we were forced to play down for about one fifth of the game (blue card Eusebio and barfing issues for Tim) since we had no benchwarmers available. Defensively we played well for the most part (missed some marks and got sucked to the ball near the end)and Kyle played solid for a rare indoor shutout. Offensively Medina turned in a nice performance and Taylor made the difference with 4 goals and an assist. Medina and Tim also hit the back of the net. Coach Seitz was on the bench by himself but saw the first win of the season materialize fairly quickly with two early goals. Graber and Eusebio took care of the defense for the majority of the game. Clay, Tad and Bebe were AWOL tonight and will all be back for the next game.

FC Groningen - Feyenoord 2-0 (1-0)

TWO TIM MATAVZ GOALS DEFEAT FEYENOORD. FC GRONINGEN IN THIRD PLACE NOW, ONLY 4 POINTS BEHIND LEADER PSV.

OG/AC update

Open Gym starts at 7:30 pm tonight. As a matter of fact, we will start at 7:30 the rest of the off-season.

U19 - Chiqui's Auto Sales 3-3

Good game, nice goals. Noodle's goal disallowed...wow.....that was really a nice goal! The team deserved more but will able to get revenge in two weeks. Lakeland is up next.

U16 - AC Milan 4-5

The offensive line did not help to defend from the offensive third and the defense quits marking halfway thru the game. Despite a couple of nice goals, we were unable to focus on marking and lost due to letting the weakside wide open. Should have been a win and the team should start paying attention to their coach.

Late game tonight for U16

Eleven pm (!) is the kick off time for the U16 tonight. Should come away with a win so that will ease the pain.....some.

VV Grijpskerk - Leeuwarder Zwaluwen 4-0

Moving up in the right column and trying to make a charge for a spot in the left one seems to be a reality in the next few weeks as the red devils defeat the footballers from the capitol of Friesland in a 6 point relegation spectacle. Next up for the VV is the away game at #4 Oeverzwaluwen from the town of Koudum (Friesland). Time for an early St. Nicholas present, perhaps?

Open Gym - time change

Once again, basketball will be in the AC until 7:30. We will start OG at about that time and will go to about 9 or so.

Heracles - FC Groningen 3-0

Not a good effort from the Groningers.

FC Groningen U19 - NR (Classy Northridge) 2-10

Arrogant -and that is putting it nicely- and acting like a typical Northridge team (who by the way did NOT get that close to going to state, again) who acted like a bunch of kids who had been promised to make it to State but failed to live up to those standards once again did outplay us but with little class. Unfortunately they can not just enjoy being a good team but have to make fun of the opponents, play physical but then complain when they get fouled and even dive -brazilian fez-as if their style of soccer is supposed to amaze us. As the years go by I have less respect for their approach to the game of soccer and I am looking forward to the 2011 season when we can even the score.

FC GroningenU16 - Deportivo Lifestyle 5-6

Three Wegmiller goals and two Seitz goals add up to 5 for us, they found the net six times in a fairly physical contest. U19 plays at 9 pm tomorrow.

#1 SV Urk - #12 VV Grijpskerk 1-1 (0-0)

Grijpskerk took the lead in the 58th minute with a Boonstra goal in front of 600 spectators. The Urkers came back in the 65th to tie the game. The draw allows my friend Wim's team d"Olde Veste to come within one point of the Urker fishermen. Next up for the VV are the Leeuwarder Zwaluwen in a relegation derby. In other words, 6 points at stake!

Indoor update

FC Groningen U16 will play Saturday night at 8 pm, the U19 will play Sunday night at 9 pm.

2011 Schedule update

For the 2011 season it looks like we will pick up Argos on the schedule. It will either be a regular season game or in the Argos tournament. Thanks to the hard work of our Athletic Director Norm Sellers are we now only one game away from a full schedule.After all the issues we had with Angola in the last few years, we were able to drop them off our schedule.

FC Groningen19 (NW indoor)-NR 7-9

WARMING UP BEFORE TONIGHT'S GAME.

Connor steals the show with 5 (!) goals and Josh adds 2 for our total of 7 goals. We were ahead by three for a while but let the Goshen seniors get back in the game by playing a little too much on our heels after going ahead by quite a few goals. Still pretty good soccer overall. Only man marking in the back needs some attention.

FC Groningen - ADO The Hague 1-1 FC Groningen wins PK shootout 5-4

The Royal Dutch Soccer Associations Cup round of 32 drew a matchup for FC Groningen against ADO The Hague tonight. The winner of the Cup qualifies for European soccer next season. In a close game that ended in 1-1 after regulation and extra time, needed a PK shootout to determine a winner. FC Groningen came out on top by not missing a single PK. The PK shootout score was 5-4. FC Groningen moves into the sweet sixteen and faces the amateur team of SC Genemuiden just before Christmas.

VV Grijpskerk - CVVB 2-0

One of SV Urk's 10 fields (5 with lights), this one is the main field.


Only the second win this season means the VV has now gathered 7 points total but more importantly moved uop from 14th (last) to 12th place overall. Confidence is growing and hopefully just in time. This coming saturday the redshirts travel to the former island of Urk to face the first place team SV Urk.

FC Groningen - NAC Breda 2-1

Granqvist scores all three goals! The first one is an own goal but then he makes up for it by scoring two in the opponent's goal. Tied for third with Ajax!

Open Gym @ AC - time change!!

Due to basketball try outs, OG will start at 7:30 pm tonight. We will go until about 9 pm.

FC Groningen16 - FC AMPS 5-5

PLAYING IN THE NEW GREEN "NW VOETBAL" SHIRTS

Under the watchful eyes of a primarily female fan base, the NW Voetbal team (FC Groningen16) managed to come back in the second half after falling behind 5-2. The final score of 5-5 meant that a lot of effort was needed in the second half. With a nice performance from all players (Tad, Tim, Carter, Jordan, Clay, Taylor and Kyle -no subs available tonight-)partly because defensively the marks were tight and offensively the play efficient. Kyle had some timely saves when it was needed (especially when we were catching up and still 5-3 behind), Tad, Jordan and Carter played well defensively and Tim, Clay and Taylor combined well up front. Taylor finished the night with a hat trick and Clay scored the other two. Nice result in the new shirts!

U16/U19 shirts are in

Gotta love this if you are a FC Groningen fan!

U16/U19 schedule update

FC GRONINGEN U16
FC Groningen U16- Sat. Nov. 6 at 9 pm, Sat Nov. 13 at 8 pm, Saturday Nov. 20 at 11 pm.
FC Groningen U19
FC Groningen U19- Thu. Nov. 11 at 8 pm, Sun Nov. 14 at 9 pm, Sun. Nov. 21 at 8 pm.


All schedules have been posted on the Elkhart Sports Center website.

Fall Awards

Co-MVP-Ryan Lincoln/Eddie Salinas
Co-Defensive MVP (Travis Hunsberger Award)-Jason Callejas/Kyle Dijkstra
Co-Captain- Ryan Lincoln/Tyler Kronk
Most Improved- Clayton Seitz
Mental Attitude-Ryan Lincoln
All NLC - Eddie Salinas/Jason Callejas/Connor Beckwith
Honorable Mention-Ryan Lincoln
More then 100 Career Wins- Coach Duerksen
Congratulations!
All Awards are voted on by the players.

Sectional sign updated

2006, 2007, 2008 & 2010!

Reminder

OG/AC tonight at 7 until about 8:30.

LTC - VV Grijpskerk 1-0

After winning a week ago (vs Omlandia 7-0!), it was everyone's hope they would continue to gather points but it wasn't to be. The "smallruggen" lost 1-0 and are now in sole possession of the red lantern with only 4 points on the season.

FC VVV Venlo- FC Groningen 3-5

LOT OF NICE GOALS!
Twente, PSV and Ajax are the only teams ahead of Groningen. Only 4 points off the lead!

NWU19 (FC Groningen19)-Bethany U19 5-6 (3-2)

Super Coach Seitz had all players available tonight. A well played game with a couple (or three) unlucky breaks. The half time score was 3-2 ahead with a nice right side diagonal shot from Connor that took the dust off the nets, a goal from Roman after a long throw from Kyle to Noodle who passed to Josh, Josh's shot came back in front of Roman's feet who executed perfectly and the third one coming off of Josh's boots. The second half saw the Bruins come back time and time again on deflected shots (three times mind you) despite the fact that Josh put in two more for his hat trick. Final score 5-6 so a little disappointing result because the way we played and scored deserved more. Check the Elkhart Sports Center's website later this week for next week's game times.

NWU16 (FC Groningen)- NorthridgeU16 (Elite Eight) 6-6

The indoor season started tonight. Lindy Seitz's U16 FC Groningen tied Elie Eight from Middlebury 6-6. After falling behind 4-2, the WaNee reps came back to go ahead 6-5, only to give up a goal in the last 4 minutes to conclude game one with a 6-6 tie. A nice result however in a very entertaining game. Goals came from Taylor (3), Eusebio (2) and Carter Beebe. The goal of the game came off a Kyle Dijkstra kick out of the box to Tim Escota on the right side who in turn passed it to Taylor who shot on goal and hit the ropes. Three touches total on the ball from one goal into the other!.Fortunately our game ended in shaking hands instead of exchanging punches like the game before ours. Our U19 (FC Groningen19) plays its first game tomorrow (Sunday) at 8 pm. Good Luck to his Lindy and his U19 squad tomorrow night.

Week of November 1st starts and finishes seasons

This coming Monday will be the first Open Gym at the AC. We will start at 7pm and will finish up around 8:30 pm. The State Finals take place this coming weekend which means that Open Gyms can start up again after that. So Open Gym is the off season start for the 2011 season. As we have stated before, "Succes stays in the record books and having fun passes with time". So fortunately we were able to add another Sectional Championship into the record books as well as some other records (wins & shutouts)but we had fun as well this past season. On Tuesday November 2nd at 6:30 pm we would like to have ALL players (Varsity and JV) come to the Fall Awards. We will discuss the expectations for the off season as well.

Here is the deal.........

The Fall Awards will be held on November 2nd at the High School. After the MVP awards have been given out, we will meet together as a team. During that time, players and parents can purchase 2 CD's and a DVD. On the black CD, Lindy Seitz has a compilation of pictures from the regular season, sectionals and regional game. The red CD has pictures of the Varsity, seniors and individual pictures in the new red jerseys. The DVD is a Sectional/Regional slideshow with the music from the 2010 warm up CD as background music. The price for one CD is $5, two CD's or one CD & one DVD is $9 and the set of three is $12.

U19 team registered as well

Mr. Seitz has also registered a NorthWood U19 team for the first session at the Elkhart Sports Center. The indoor season (8 weeks)starts next weekend (weekend of October 20).

Watching a former teammate.....

The closest Seth will play to NorthWood is this coming Saturday at and against Grace College in Winona Lake (literally in Lakeland Christian's backyard). The game starts at 3 pm. Coach Duerksen and Dijkstra as well as some players are planning on attending.

You know the season is over when...........

THE NETS ARE DOWN....
AND WHEN THE SIGN NEEDS TO COME DOWN TO BE UPDATED TO REFLECT THE LAST TWO CHAMPIONSHIPS

From the NWHS website, October Newsletter..pay attention to November 2nd

OCTOBER (continued)
Fall Choral Preview ............................ Oct. 18 7:00 pm
Area Spell Bowl ................................. Oct. 18
Donkey Basketball ............................. Oct. 19
Fall Break—No School ...................... Oct. 28-29
NOVEMBER
Athletic Awards Night ......................... Nov. 2 6:30 pm
Fall Play ............................................. Nov. 11 7:00 pm
End of 2nd Grading Period .................. Nov. 12
Fall Play ............................................. Nov. 13 7:00 pm
Fall Play ............................................. Nov. 14 2:30 pm
Thanksgiving Holiday ......................... Nov. 25-26

First U16 team registered with Elkhart Sports Center

Coach Seitz will coach the U16 team (registered as "FC Groningen") to the Elkhart Sports Center for the session beginning at the end of the month.We are hoping to get a U19 team together for the same session and are hoping to also have a second U16 for the second session. Thanks to coach Seitz for helping out, again!

from Monday's NWHS announcements

All JV & Varsity soccer players must meet tomorrow (Tuesday) after school at the practice field to hand in uniforms.

FC Groningen - SC Heerenveen 1-0

In 4th, behind Ajax, Twente and PSV!

Bethel Game Wednesday

We have made arrangements with the Bethel coach for Wednesday's game vs. Saint Francis for all NW soccer players to watch the game for free. We will discuss the specifics (transportation etc.) Tuesday when the uniforms will be handed in after school. So let us know tomorrow if you are interested in going.

U16 & U19 Indoor Information

Lindy Seitz will put together the U16 & U19 teams. All players interested will have to give us their birthdate information on Tuesday when the uniforms will be handed in. On the U16 teams, 8th graders don't count as part of the 6 maximum players each team can have from one High School. On the U19 team, seniors do not count towards the total of 6 player from one school. Mr. Seitz will also be the Coach for the two teams. All information on the teams will be posted here after Tuesday. If you have any questions, let us know Tuesday.

End of season information

On Tuesday October 19, all players will meet at the High School practice field to hand in their -clean- uniforms and warm ups. After we have done that, the Varsity will go to the game field and remove the nets from the goals.

All players interested in playing indoors on a U16 or U19 team, please see Coach Duerksen today or tomorrow. He will need your date of birth. Rosters with the Sports Center are due Saturday.

On Saturday October 23, Indiana Wesleyan and Seth will play at Grace College. If anyone is interested in going to that game, let me or coach know.

Let me or coach also know if you are interested in going to a Bethel home game and we can see what game to go to. Tickets for the Bethel game will be free.

Fall Awards are Tuesday November 2nd at 6:30 pm.

2010 Soccer Stats

NorthWood Panthers 11-5-2 (NLC) 2-4-1

Name/Goals/Assists/NLC/PTS
Taylor Wegmiller 7/1/1g/15
Ryan Lincoln 7/6/2a/20
Eddie Salinas 4/10/1g1a/18
Jason Callejas 3/6/1g/12
Connor Beckwith 5/2/2g/12
Josh Ailes 5/1/-/11
Trent Jacobs 4/2/1g/10
Roman Ortiz-Prather 4/1/1g/9
Eusebio Pantoja 1/1/-/3
Justen Hochstetler 1/-/-/2
Tyler Kronk -/2/-/2
Collin Tucker -/2/1a/2

SHUTOUTS
Kyle Dijkstra -9 * G.A.A- 1.22

Goals For: 42
Goals Against: 22

Career Record 110=110-32

* School Record

Thanks......for a great season!

The Goal........

Regionals....pics are up

Regionals-Elkhart Central-NorthWood 2-0 (0-0)

The Panthers' season ended on a cool night at Newton Park with a 2-0 loss against Elkhart Central. Despite the fact that the Panthers controlled the game the majority of the first half, it was the Blue Blazers who drew first blood. The first goal came 17 minutes into the second half after NorthWood played on its heels for about a five minute span. Central's Morales scored not only the first but also the second goal about a minute later even though it was obvious it was scored in an off side position. But the Panthers got no help from any of the three referees (a rarity that all of them would screw up this bad during the same game). With a little less then five minutes left on the clock, Ryan Lincoln was at the end line(!) and crossed a ball in the box. The ensuing header from Eddie went in for what looked to be the 2-1 (and if the off side Central goal would have been disallowed, this goal should have tied it up)but the referee on the fans side put up her flag for off side. Now, when a ball is crossed from the end line and the receiving player is behind the ball you can NOT be offside (even if there are no other Central players in front of him. So another bad call from the goobers in yellow. It is too bad that referees have this much impact on important games.
Except for a 15 minute span in the second half, the Panthers played a good game and despite the loss, had a great season. The seniors will be sorely missed. It is always a sad moment to pull into the school parking lot for the final time of the season and having to huddle up for the last time with these seniors. This years seniors were Cameron "Coo" Williams, Trent "Michelin Man" Jacobs, Ryan Lincoln, Tyler "Cramp" Kronk, Jason "the Magician" Callejas and Jiovanni Andriano. Thanks for a great season, seniors! The 11 wins tie the school record wins. The 11-5-2 record is the highest winning percentage in school history. The 9 shut outs are a new school record. The 2010 Sectional Championship is the school's 4th.
I will post leading scorers, assists and other records later.
After this succesful season, where we set goals for double digit wins, finishing near the top in the NLC and winning a Sectional Championship, it is now time to get ready for the 2011 season. We will have teams competing at the Elkhart Sports Center in indoor soccer (starts Oct 30th I believe) and the Open Gyms at the AC will start Monday November 1st at 7 pm and will run until 8:30 pm or so.
The coaches also want to thank all the parents for their support this season. From getting your kids and our players to the indoor games, the 7v7 games in Elkhart, supporting the team in the pre-season at the Soccer Showcase tournament to team dinners, the food and drinks after the games and even driving the bus. So thanks to all the parents in general and Sherry Beckwith for all her time organizing the food and drinks and doing the t-shirts etc. and Lindy Seitz for doing the pictures and everyone else who helped in one way or another. Thanks so much, it was truly appreciated by the players and the coaches.

Semi Final Games - Regionals, today

At 5 pm South Bend St. Joe will face off against Mishawaka Marian. The Elkhart Central - NorthWood matchup will follow with a projected kick off of 7 pm. All Regional games will take place at Newton Park.

Kronk's surprise

Tyler shows up at practice to find out he brought his sisters shorts.

Perfect square

Unfortunately this one square foot of pure dirt topped off with a dead piece of crab grass square in the middle is situated where? If you guessed that it can be found on our bumpy rock hard game field, you were correct.

Dinner at Coo's

Coo makes the blog again! Not only did we get to enjoy great food at the Coo Homestead but we also got to enjoy Coo starting FIFA 11 for 56 and a half straight minutes. If you have never experienced it you are missing out!

Coo succesful in restraining Coach Mattern

COO WAS ABLE TO RESTRAIN COACH MATTERN LATE IN THE GAME BUT IT TOOK ALL HE HAD. COACH MATTERN DISAGREED WITH A DIRK THE SMIRK DECISION. THIS PICTURE IS A RE-ENACTMENT OF THE INCIDENT.

Your 2010 Sectional Champions

The game report is posted below the picture blogs.

The Sectional Championship game pics are up, almost 200 of them!

1-0!

9 Shut Outs on the Season

Kyle has the school record for 9 shutouts but we are still playing so we have a chance to improve the record. Of course the defense deserves a lot of credit as well. With the defensive midfielders and defenders and keeper, the Panthers have kept the "Goals Against" to a minimum this season.

2010 Sectional Championship LaVille-NorthWood 0-1 (0-1)

Family, friends, the girls soccer team, teachers and other coaches and former players, all had found their way to Newton Park on what felt like a summer night in October. The stands were full and many more fans had brought their own chairs to watch the game from the sideline. An estimated 500 plus crowd would witness a physical soccer battle.
The controversial referee from the semi final was on the sideline which we hoped would mean he could not influence the game too much. I guess we were wrong since Dirk with the smirk would rear his ugly head late in the game....it is all about you, isn't it Dirk?

FIRST HALF
Larry Doan was the center ref, which pleased the coaches. Too many times in the past have we had to deal with incompetent performances from that position and a Sectional Championship is not the time to have to deal with that. The unfortunate thing is that the IHSAA changed the set up for refereeing years ago from a center ref with linesmen to a center ref with two AR's (assistant referees) who have more say about fouls on and off the field.

NorthWood got to defend the west side of the field by choice and LaVille got to kick off. The first few minutes went back and forth as both teams tried to establish their game. The Panthers were well aware that LaVille likes to go thru #10 and #23and had prepared the defense accordingly.
In the 8th minute a Ryan Lincoln shot was initially saved by #00 (??) keeper Vest but he was unable to hold on to the pig bladder. The ball rolled to the right of the goal where Eddie Salinas had come over to crash the goal. Eddie controlled the ball, took a couple of touches at the goal and put the ball away for the 1-0 early lead!
NorthWood played well on defense even though an early Lancer attack saw a duel between a LaVille striker and Jason. Jason's elbow made contact with the LaVille striker's nose resulting in a bloody schnazola.
In the 15th, LaVille was awarded a direct free kick from about 29 out almost straight on the goal. LaVille's #23 Highland (one of their leading scorers)took a hard and high upper right shot that was punched over by Kyle for his first -but not last- good save of the day.
In the 21st and 25th, Taylor used his speed to go at goal, in the first effort he was caught from behind resulting in a corner, in the second effort the LV keeper made a save. In the 28th minute, LV #23 went into the box which seemed to be the biggest threat in the first half but an amazing timely Clay Seitz sliding cleared the ball off the forward's feet. The 1-0 half time score was a pretty good reflection of the game.

HALF TIME
The one way discussion at the half centered on a couple of strategic adjustments and trying to put one or more goals in to deflate the opponent. Much emphasis was put on coming out with energy because the expectation was that LaVille would come out with much pressure in the first 10 minutes of the second half. If the lead would stand, the players were told to keep their composure because our experience was that LaVille would "loose it" when frustration would set in.

SECOND HALF
Only 2 minutes in, the second half would present LaVille with their first opportunity. Jake, who played a really solid game, slipped and a LaVille midfielder took the ball at goal but Kyle came up with a big save to preserve the lead. Three minutes later it was the Panther's turn to try their luck at the other side of the field. Eddie's corner landed in the perfect spot in the box. Lincoln headed the ball but it went just over the crossbar. In the 57th minute Eddie came up on the right side of the field and crossed a ball in the box to Ryan Lincoln. Ryan headed the low cross but the LaVille goalie got to the ball. A beautiful Noodle pass from the circle right thru the LaVille defense gave Taylor a chance to run on to the ball. Once inside the 18, Taylor took a perfect shot at goal. The keeper made an unbelievable save to keep LaVille in the game. LaVille tried to create opportunities in the remaining minutes of the game. Kyle made another 4 fabulous saves to keep the lead for the Panthers. Our defense did an outstanding job all night long. Clay and Kronk controlled the outside flanks. Clay's clearing passes were dead on all night. Kronk did what he has been doing for four years, being the biggest pest to the opponent to the point that it drives you nuts because you can't get around him. This night it would result in some scuffles in front of the grand stand and every time the coaches thought Kronk was hurt, he would wave them off and stay in the game. Jason was his own composed self and played a fantastic game. Jake cleared the ball all night long and kept his depth. No changes were made to the defense at all. Connor and Josh defended the central part of the midfield well with great performances by Collin and Trent as well. The midfielders Ryan, Noodle and Eddie worked hard all night on both sides of the ball. Taylor was aggressive and got unlucky on a few occassions but not not only played well but was very dangerous keeping the LV defense playing on their heels. In the 67th, LaVille keeper Vest had to make another save to prevent the Panthers from scoring on a perfect around the wall free kick from Connor Beckwith.

GAME ALMOST OVER......
With less then 30 ticks left on the clock, Trent went for a pass up top and could not completely get to it. In the tussle, he brought down a LaVille defender. In my mind one of the smartest moves all night. A foul on that side of the field with 19 seconds left, would all but guarantee us a Sectional Championship. A double LaVille overreaction on Trent's foul turned into a situation where some guys in white and blue were trying to confront Trent resulting in a LaVille red card. Two years ago, the Panthers beat the Lancers in the Sectional as well and LaVille lost their cool then as well resulting in red cards so we were used to this...we had read this book before. Eddie was standing in the substituion area clapping when all this was going on. But now Dirk with the Smurk, who apparently got another pass to leave the nursing home for a day, thought it was time for his moment in the sun. Dirk advised the center ref that he had witnessed Eddie clapping and that he deserved a red, as a matter of fact he insisted on a red! The strange thing was that he had missed so many calls (LV sliding into Kyle with cleats up and other fouls)that I was thinking he was in need of an optometrist as quickly as possible. I was worried he would be unable to find the nursing home bus after the game, I mean, I was sure he was blind but a miracle of biblical proportions made him see again just in time to witness Eddie's "violation". With 19 seconds left in the game, a championship game at that, it shows a true lack of understanding of the game.
After the dust had settled (some exchanges between the coaches and refs) we were able to restart the game and play out the remaining seconds for another Panther Sectional Championship!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOTES
This is the 4th Sectional Championship in 5 seasons (2006, 2007, 2008, 2010)for the Panthers.

The team celebrated with a bon fire at the Beckwith estate. The three coaches met after the game to get ready for wednesday's game.

Eddie's red card will be appealed by Athletic Director Sellers on Monday morning. A similar situation happened last year to Warsaw and the red for their player was changed to a yellow caution. We have high hopes that we will get the same result.

There will be more posts today, including the re-enactment picture of Coo trying to control Coach Mattern.

The 11th win of the season ties a school record. Our record improved to 11-4-2!

Next up is Elkhart Central on Wednesday at Newton Park for the Regional Semi Finals. Central beat Elkhart Memorial 1-0 in a PK shootout (we beat Memorial 4-1 during the regular season).

Hope to see all the fans back again on Wednesday, what a turnout!

Steps closer to Finals kick off

Coach Dijkstra's back yard during the team meal today.

The team got a light work out in this afternoon, followed by a spaghetti/fettucini/macaroni meal at Coach Dijkstra's house (luckily not prepared by Coach Dijkstra). Thanks to Coach Mattern's wife Angie, Jennifer and Jillian Wegmiller and Julie Dijkstra for putting this team meal together. The bus leaves at 5:45 pm. Kick off is set for 7 pm.

Everyone is LOVIN' THE LINCOLN!

Semi Final Pics are up

1-0!