CELEBRATING THE WIN
Upon arrival, the signs of a great game to come weren't there. Two people in the stands, a ball boy who had doubled up on soccer balls and water and a Warriors team that had already gone thru half of the warmup. But things steadily improved. By game time the stands were filled and the ball boy had already sucked down one to prevent dehydration.
Coach Duerksen emphasized before the game that the focus had to be on defense and on the offensive side of the ball the team should be patient.
FIRST HALF
It started out with a bang, a Wawasee bang that is; in the second minute a Warriors cross from the right lands in front of two (!) unmarked players in white who are both about 4 yards from the keeper. Fortunately the shot was weak, Kyle got the save and no damage was done. It was a warning that we needed to shore up our defense.
Jason showed off his skill in front of the bench in the 8th when he fakes to his right, goes to his left and then split two Wawasee midfielders for a pass to Connor.
A fairly slow and boring first half only has about another three highlights (or lowlights); In the 23rd Collin gets a yellow and Eddie's "actions" yield the same result in the 29th. The third highlight being the whistle to indicate it was half time.
HALF TIME
The main focus of the half time speech -and that it was- came down to "working harder for each other". Plain and simple.
SECOND HALF
A much better start of the second half resulted in a Clayton pass over the top to Trent who goes one on one with the keeper, the rebound off the keeper's body lands in front of Lincoln who shoots but misses. In the 47th minute of play, the AR on the NW defense side decides to prove that former pro soccer player Bill Shankly was right when he said: "The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game". The AR puts up his fancy flag when Kyle punts the ball. He tells the center referee that Kyle had a "handball" by still possessing the ball with his hands while being out of the 18 yard box. While he might have had the ball in his hand as he was crossing the 18 yard line, it is a call that is never called unless it brings advantage to the keeper's team or the violation is so obvious that a referee has no other option then to call it. Coach Duerksen continued for a while to instruct the AR on how that call should not have been made only to make sure the AR's performances in the future would be of a better quality.
Both AR's had very active nights. The one on the far end -from the bench perspective-had a flag that was more in the up then down position. There were too many stoppages that slowed down the game. The blue squirel in the middle didn't do the greatest of jobs and I would hardly think that he came home thinking he had the performance of a lifetime.
In the 64th minute Taylor got called for off sides after he received a ball and put it past the GK for what we thought was the 1-0. Fortunately we only had to wait three minutes for a nice build up from the back to Collin in the middle. Collin passed it to Taylor just inside the 18. The Wawasee keeper had come out and the ball came down just between the two. Taylor one touched it over the goalie, into the air. The ball came back down in the right side net inside the goal for a brilliant Wegmiller goal, 1-0. Wawasee tried to mount a comeback in the remaining 13 minutes but was unsuccesful. The mouthy Warriors team who had been told earlier in the game by their coach that they could do all the talking they wanted after "you beat them" became fairly quiet. After the final whistle we were assured that the trash and the trashtalking would stay behind in Syracuse.
NOTES
The Varsity record is now 5-1 (1-1-0 NLC)
The Varsity's win streak is three, it was another clean sheet for Kyle (#4) and his defense.
Next up: #16 Warsaw at home this coming Tuesday September 14 at 6:45 pm.
The JV won 1-0 as well with a nice Tad Chamberlin goal (16th minute) in the first half. Dyksen had some issues with runs before and during the game, before he had them and during he made them.
Did you take a look at the water tower next to the field? I swear the letters on the back off the Wawasee jerseys fell off that tower.
The JV record is 3-2. The RMAA rules and policy committee has ruled the Lakeland Christian game a scrimmage and not an official game.
No comments:
Post a Comment