Whitko - NorthWood 0-10 (0-6)

FIRST HALF Both full squads occupy the middle of the field for a lineup announcement to be followed by a national anthem and a half.It is time for the season to start; Whitko's Blue Crew fails to show up, the ballman and ball lady are ready and the Whitko captains have carefully placed the ARMbands on their LEGS. The 2013 Stat Booster Bowl starts out with a bang when 20 (!!!!) seconds into the game, the leather already hits the ropes for the first time off the foot of Carter Beebe after a Bennett Parker assist.Unfortunately only a small crowd is witness to the quick start of the 2013 season. The game, being played on the Whitko football field which is nestled between the town's cemetery and the High School, actually is in pretty good shape for a soccer match. The main adjustment for the players is that they have to play the yellow side and end lines. Despite the fact that NW plays mostly on the Wildcats' half of the field, no more goals fall until the 18th minute when a goal kick doesn't get too far out of the box and Carter Beebe is able to steal the ball away from the Whitko central defender. He easily puts the ball away for a 0-2 lead. It is clear then that Whitko does not really have any weapons to outscore us at that point.A minute later, Brandon Barahona starts his barrage on the woodwork. First it splatters off the crossbar and a few moments later it hits the post. In the 23rd, Beebe takes a shot at goal, the GK makes a save but the ball comes loose. Brayton Taylor is in the right spot to finish the attack with a goal, 0-3. Ten minutes later, Bennett Parker pushes a ball smoothly into the box to Dennyz Barahona who has no trouble connecting for a 0-4 lead. In the 36th, Brandon Barahona shoots a ball at the Whitko "00/Superman" keeper. The ball comes off his chest in front of Bennett who puts the ball into the net, 0-5. Two minutes before the half, Dennyz crosses a ball into the mix that eventually lands near Toni Lopez who places the ball over the line for the last goal of the first half. Cody Cripe was not extremely busy in the goal but had to make a save and did a fine job in goal. HALF TIME Minor adjustments are made that mainly focus on passing the ball to feet, speeding up the thinking and decision making process and keeping our shape offensively. SECOND HALF Tito Lynn takes the spot between the pipes for half number 2. His first challenge comes 4 minutes into the half when only Whitko's second shot of the game sails towards the Panthers' goal. With no pressure on him from the 40 yard line, Brandon Barahona decides to dribble to near the 28 yard line and takes a shot that flies past Superman -who is a little too far off his line-; the ball goes into the upper right 90 for the 0-7 lead. Brayton Taylor adds an assist to his goal when he places a nice pass into Toni Lopez' feet who places the ball behind the Whitko keeper, 0-8. The game now starts to turn into the Brayton Taylor show. A 72nd minute corner turns into a half inswinger that gets mishandled by the Whitko keeper, who slaps it in the goal for a Taylor goal (his 2nd), 0-9. In the 74th both Bennett and Brayton hit the crossbar, Beebe Carter almost puts in his third near post but it goes over and the last action of the day comes from Brayton, who slices thru the Wilcat defense like a hot knife thru butter and finds himself one on one with the goalie and decides to put it in with seconds to spare in the game for the final score 0-10. NOTES Easy win Tuesday but the story will be much different for the first home game Thursday when Elkhart Central pays us a visit. JV start at 5 pm, to be followed by the Varsity at 6:45 pm. Today's practice will commence early (2:45 ) and we should be done by 4:45.