The team left Nappanee under somewhat sunny skies and temps in the 70's only to arrive in Plymouth under cloudy skies with windy and cool conditions. Fortunately, the wind died down and it would turn into a nice night to sit back and watch the Panthers take on the last NLC opponents of the season.The warm up features music from several decades ago and might be partly to blame for Plymouth's dismal season. The announcements were made by a person who tried to clear his throat while pronouncing all players' names (but did not always succeed in the latter, hence the announcement of "Pantaja" and "Dicksen").
FIRST HALF
As usual, the team needs about 5 minutes to settle down. Plymouth takes the ball at the NW defensive third from the kick off. But in the 9th, NW gets its first opportunity. A Seitz pass to Wegmiller results in the first of many shots at the Plymouth goal. The shot bounces off a Plymouth defender for a corner. Taylor takes the corner and Eusebio takes a nice directional shot off a rebound and only the rear end of a Plymouth defender prevents the first score of the night. We only have to wait another 60 seconds for the opening score. Brayton gets the ball near the right side line in the middle third of the field. His accurate pass finds Taylor who, with a nice touch and great speed, slices thru the Plymouth defense and goes one on one with the keeper. He finds the net with a pass on the goal, 0-1! But Mr. Assist (Taylor) is not satisfied with just a goal and gets involved right away again in the 11th. His pass near the box to Clay is near perfect. Clay goes around the defense and takes a decisive shot and connects for the 2 goal lead. In the 15th, two hard close range bullets find the hands of the quick reacting Plymouth keeper who prevents an early blowout. When two defenders blunder in the back, Taylor gets another chance but a deflection of the shot turns into another corner. In the 29th, Tad clears the ball from the back. The long ball goes near the Plymouth defense where Taylor takes a shot that misses to the right of the woodwork. In the 36th, Barahona is in possession of the ball and distributes the ball on the ground to the left of the Plymouth defense, to Parker. With a nifty move, Parker puts himself in a nice position inside the box where he faces the Plymouth keeper. His shot to the right of the goal gets touched by the goalie but still has enough pace to continue its path to the goal. Despite a desparate attempt by a defender -who slides into the goal-, the ball makes it over the goal line to extend the Panthers' lead to 0-3.
HALF TIME
The coaches talk about getting the ball to Clay and Taylor with thru balls and balls over the top. Finishing off Plymouth with one more goal soon after the second half kick off is the goal or as Coach Duerksen puts it: "put 'em in the body bag, Johnny!".
SECOND HALF
The ever cocky #10 throws the ball far, well most of the time. Early on in the second half he attempts a throw in to a teammate in close proximity and it is the second worst throw in I have seen, ever! The worst came just a few minutes before that by another Plymouth player who only let go of the ball when it hit his nose. The 0-3 score clearly frustrates Plymouth and play on the field gets pretty chippy. The Rockies/Pilgrims commit lots of fouls especially on Taylor who also gets man marked (#12) the rest of the night much to Taylor's delight. Wherever Taylor goes, #12 goes. So Taylor makes a few trips near the NW bench only to be closely followed by his little companion. Eusebio collides with a Plymouth midfielder. He hobbles a bit and Duerksen asks if he is okay. "Just a little charlie horse, coach" cries Eusebio. But he continues play despite the "charlie pony injury". In the 48th, NW allows a Plymouth attack and Kyle Van Lue does not experience any defensive pressure from us and takes a rip. The shot finds the near upper 90 and decreases the lead by one goal to 2 (1-3). But the Panthers recover from this letdown and keep putting pressure on the opponents defense. In the 60th, Taylor takes a shot inside the box but his effort meets up with the Plymouth keepers hands. David has a nice shot off a rebound in the 63rd and nearly scores. In the 72nd, Taylor again makes it past the Plymouth defense and seems to go one on one until he gets clobbered from behind for the sure red card. There was no intent to play the ball, the only intent was to mow down the player. The Plymouth defender only gets a yellow caution (he would be the second player on his team to receive a card; #6 got one in the first half when he lost his composure and kicked a ball on to the practice field). In minute 75, Taylor passes the ball to Clay who gets double marked right away. But his spin move (the "Cristiano")takes him away and around both defenders and his shot takes the dust of the ropes for the final 1-4 score. Tim is wailing on the bench because he "taught him that move". His turn hopefully comes Monday when we hope to see him back in action. All in all a good night; Thirteen players saw the field. And not one had a bad night, as a matter of fact, all had a good to very good night. Beebe probably played his best game of the year, Eusebio had Plymouths' number all night, defensively Tad, Dyksen and Dennyz were solid. Brandon played well and had an assist, Parker had a goal and was open a good portion of the night. Brayton/David & Conner all performed well. Taylor and Clay did what they have done all season (produce) and Kyle wasn't super busy but got some good saves and his punts were unbelievable (in hockey he would have had an assist) and he said he loved booting this -mutli colored- ball.
NOTES
Next up is Bethany Christian tomorrow (Thursday 9/27). Maybe not the great team from a year ago (with Hollinger-Janzen who now starts for IU) but still a very good team and it may very well be one of the better teams we play all year. It is Senior Night so we hope for a big crowd to honor our seniors. This has been a very good senior class and a lot of these guys' names will be in the school record books for a long time to come. The JV game starts at 5 pm, the Varsity at 6:45 and the Seniors will be honored before the Varsity kick off.Today's practice is at 3:30 - 5 pm at the game field. With one more win or tie, we will once again have a winning season. Varsity's record is 8-6-2. The JV lost 4-0.
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