NorthWood-Elkhart Christian Academy 2-1 (0-1)

As the picture above shows, the field is in great shape, the weather is perfect so it seems to be a good night to experience some good soccer. FIRST HALF- Well, that is what a perfect night might look like but that is not really the way the first half will play out. It starts out well when Brayton Taylor cuts through the Eagles defense like a hot knife thru butter 120 seconds into the game but his 1V1 is denied by the ECA keeper. For the next ten minutes, most of the action takes place on the ECA side of the field. But in the 13th minute, ECA clears a ball thru the middle that ends up near the NW defense. A bad clearance presents the ball right back to ECA. With a long distance shot, the ball flies over Cody and into the net, 0-1. Not much quality soccer takes place until the 39th, when Brayton gets tackled from what seems to be inside the box and judging by the center referee's reaction (pointing to the penalty kick spot). Somehow, he changes his call to a free kick outside the box (after advise from the AR?). The free kick misses its target. HALF TIME- Working harder, making runs off the ball are the main focus although a secondary focus should be "better ball touch"; our passes were off in the first half!. SECOND HALF- Right from the kick off, NW plays with a little more passion and the more up tempo type of play gives us more possession of the ball. The first dangerous moment occurs in the 53rd minute when Dylan Weldy hits a free kick and loops it on Isaac's head. The header is saved by the ECA GK. Two minutes later, Brayton shows up in the box, ball on his foot and rips a shot. After a deflection it lands in front of AC who with some finesse, puts it past the keeper but the ball is saved off the line by an ECA defender to prevent the equalizer from going in. Finally, in the 63rd, a break for the Panthers. Again it is Brayton who goes into the box to take on the ECA defense and gets nailed. This time the PK is awarded. Brayton takes the pk and despite the ECA keeper getting a glove on it, the ball ends up in the goal, 1-1. NW keeps pressing and in the 73rd, Connor Miller takes a corner that ends up in the mix, with some pinball type wizardry, Tanner gets a foot on the ball. The ball goes to Dennyz who shoots the ball on the ground thru a maze of feet but into the goal, 2-1! The last 17 minutes we see a lot of exciting action in front of both goals. The ECA coach apparently is not aware of his technical area and spends most of the half ON the field directing his players. None of this seems to bother the AR who seems oblivious to quite a few things this half although he seems to call a lot after getting advise from that same ECA coach. In the 78th, Tony Lopez enters the box and he gets tangled up with the ECA goalie. After the ball is gone, the goalie keeps hanging on to Tony's legs as if he suddenly fell in love with them. It might have been another PK call but the wrestling action is ignored by the center ref. With a couple of more chances for NW near the end and the crowd (good size crowd by the way)going crazy, the Panthers are able to hang on to the lead. When the final whistle blows, the bottom line is the 2-1 win which we desperately needed.