MICHELIN MAN
The bus took us on a dirt bike path to the back of Lakeland Christian for a pleasant afternoon of High School soccer. The national anthem was not part of the pre-game ritual, a prayer was.
FIRST HALF
The game started with a NorthWood possession that ended over the sideline for a NW throw in. It looked as if our own Michelin man (more about him later) had to perform the throw in duties until a teammate realized that a man with a cast on each hand probably is not the ideal person to toss the ball in the field of play. The throw in landed near a Lakeland player who passed it towards the NW goal mouth. A very alert keeper came out near the top of the box to avert disaster this early in the game and made a huge save in a one on one in the second minute. The ball did end up in the box but a collective effort from several defenders resulted in the ball being cleared.
After that, NorthWood kept the ball away from Lakeland for quite a while. At the three minute mark, the score was 6-0 for NW,in throw ins that is. The first opportunity came when Jason slipped a ball in the box to Lincoln. Lincoln's shot went wide.
Noodle came out of the game in the 13th to address some footwear problems (someone show this kid how to tie his shoelaces?). Taylor subbed in for Roman. In the 14th, Trent Jacobs had a shot at goal saved by the Lakeland keeper.
NW possessed the ball 75 - 80% of the time and rarely had to contend with Lakeland attacks. Not that we mustered a whole lot of offense. At least not until about the 33rd minute. Clay recovered a ball in the back and placed it upfield where it ended up in the corner where Lincoln took a shot at the keeper.
In the 36th minute of play, NW had its most potent attack of the first half where a nice tight cross landed in front of Taylor who, without hesitation, took a nice bending shot at the goal. The shot barely missed the right post.
HALF TIME
The main focus was to repeat some pre game discussions about making runs and looking for splits. It was clear that we controlled the game and we had a good half, we now had to put one in the net.
SECOND HALF
The players got back on the field against the scenic backdrop of small bleachers and a semi trailer that doubles as a soccer equipment shed. We now got to defend the south or small goal. The south goal was several inches shorter then the goal on the north side. So in theory, it would be tougher to score in the second half. The Panthers did create several opportunities. It started quickly with a pass from Eddie from the right side to left to Trent. Trent's first touch was sublime and the consequent shot was not bad either, it just missed to the left of the goal. In the 50th, Collin did not execute a pass well to Coach Duerksen's chagrin. Duerksen pointed out the mistake to Collin who responded (during play) "I'm trying!" to which Coach responded "Try harder!".
A collective effort in the middle of the second half led to a lot of attacking play on the right side. In the 59th, a Trent Jacobs shot hit the crossbar and came back out. It was a game in which one player needed to step up and take an individual effort to make a difference. That play came in the 73rd when Josh Ailes got the ball on the left side in the offensive third from Eddie. Josh took a look at the Lakeland keeper, noticed he was a little too far to his right and took a shot with the left foot. the shot sailed into the upper right hand corner for the 1-0.
Lakeland tried to counter attack the last few minutes but was not able to create any serious chances.
NOTES
Adding insult to injury; Trent "Michelin" Jacobs dislocated his thumb during one of his signature spills. He will receive treatment and will be evaluated by his doctor this morning. Hopefully he will be cleared for tomorrow's game. UPDATE; Trent is cleared to play but needs to wrap his thumb as well. So the running Mummy with the #3 tomorrow will be Trent.
Collectively, the team played well. The defense kept it compact in the back and showed some nice composure. Jake was back at sweep and Jason seems to settle in nicely at stop. Kronk and Clayton played solid games in the back. In the midfield we were able to switch fields and expose the weak side consistently with nice performances from Josh, Eddie, Noodle, Trent and Taylor. Eusebio did a nice job off the bench.
Conner Beckwith should be back today for his first practice in a while. He might get some playing time in tomorrow against Northridge.
The JV got unlucky in their scrimmage (40 min.) against Lakeland Christian. Their first goal was disallowed (off side -wrong call!). Two defensive miscues (not stepping to the ball and some lunging) gave the Cougars a 2-0 lead. The Panthers did answer with a Brandon Barahona goal with 8 minutes left on the clock for the final score of 2-1.They did however play well with a lot of nice runs and combinations. Next up for the JV is a 5 pm game at home vs. Northridge.
Today's Varsity practice is at the game field at 3:30. The JV practices at the High School.
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