NorthWood Wins 2015 Argos Invitational by beating Lakewood Park 4-0 (2-0) & Argos 2-1 (1-0)

NORTHWOOD-LAKEWOOD PARK-The true story of the day is the great work rate by an entire (!) team for two consecutive games on one day. So far this season we more often then not, look like the more skilled, the faster and the more physical team. Great assets for success, potentially! Today's first match up is with Lakewood Park. The wind is a factor. We start with the knowledge that winning the game will place us in the Final against Argos who earlier had beaten Glenn (5-1). Cody has to save a free kick in the 4th from Lakewood Park's Grenke (third leading scorer in the state with 21 goals). Two minutes later Eli's shot explodes off the LP crossbar. In the 15th we welcome AC back on the pitch. In the 19th, Dennyz's header turns into an assist as AC shoots the ball to the right of the frame for a 1-0 lead. The officiating is, as it usually is at the Argos Tournament, plain atrocious. In the 30th, Isaac crosses the ball from the right into the box, Brayton crushes it into the net from close range, 2-0. In minute 44, Brayton slips the ball to Derek who will not be denied a spot on the scoresheet, 3-0. Cody needs to tip the ball over on a long distance shot to keep the clean sheet intact. Mario makes a name for himself in the 78th by making the arguably best unintended goal of the tournament. His cross shot from right outside of the box and in front of the home stand, goes in the far upper 90!!!! Final score 4-0. It secures the spot in the 8 pm Final. Third place goes to Lakewood Park after they defeat John Glenn 6-4, an entertaining shoot out with lots of offense and very if any, defense. NORTHWOOD-ARGOS- The first ten minutes of the game are by far the best and most energetic of the 2015 campaign, thus far. We overwhelm Argos and dominate play on their half without the Dragons touching the ball hardly at all. In the 2nd, Brayton crosses the ball near the woodwork, AC creates the first dangerous moment with a good shot. In the 11th, an Argos corner and subsequent shot requires the Panther keeper to make an incredulous save to keep us in the game. In the 34th, Brayton distributes a ball to his right to Isaac. With a great clothesline shot, Isaac puts the ball in the Argos ropes for the 1-0 lead. This is also the HT score. The second half's script can only be played out in this tournament. The referees work harder at scoring for Argos then Argos does. The first action of the second half is an attempt by the center ref to enter the scoresheet with an assist. He awards the Dragons a penalty kick for what? No one knows. Immune to protests (his soccer IQ seems to start equaling the number of hairs on his head), he points at the dot. Argos' PK is a good one but Cody's save is even better. He stops it and play continues until AR2 raises his flag in another attempt to give Argos a goal. He is of the opinion that Cody came off his line BEFORE the kick was taken. You rarely see this called unless it is so obvious and the keeper comes so far off the line that you have no choice but to consider it cheating but that surely is not the case here. But karma comes into play for the second time in seconds as the second PK bounces off the left post. The score remains 1-0 NorthWood, despite "heroic" efforts by the officiating crew to help the home team. At least three obvious throw ins get awarded to Argos despite the fact that the Dragons kick the balls out. In the 45th, Brayton slices thru some Argos defenders and serves the ball into AC's feet. AC goes at goal and pushes the ball in the right corner to defeat the beefy Argos last man. 2-0! In the 54th, Argos #14 fakes out David 4 times before he turns the trick on himself and fakes himself out so the Panthers can take the ball up field. Juan shows the crowd what he has shown the team on the training grounds for weeks now, a great hard shot. This one nearly misses. It becomes obvious that the Panthers are not going to get many calls from this clearly incompetent officials trio. In the 58th, Jaron turns in the box and takes a laser shot. Through out the tournament, the coaches have a hard time determining who should come off the field for the subs. Everyone is playing hard and playing well. We show enormous speed, skill determination in both games. Once subs come in, the level of play stays the same. Having a deep bench is an advantage we have not had in years. In the 75th, Argos scores a goal, 2-1. This fact, the game being close, where it had only seemed moments earlier that it was out of reach for Argos, combined with the fact that Argos now is playing with 14 players, makes for an interesting last few minutes (plus some!). When a ball goes over the line and an argument ensues over whose throw it is, there are only 40 plus seconds left on the clock. By the time the argument is settled (?), 20 ticks are left. The Argos head coach screams at the center that too much time went off the clock during the argument and that time should be added (WHAT????). The fact that the ref screwed up (surprise!) by not stopping the clock, is now made up by this bald wonder on two legs, by stopping the clock and having the timekeeper add 10 seconds. It now shows "30" seconds left in the game. The game restarts, but the clock does not. Despite the coaches and players screaming at the best official Argos has ever seen, the game does not get stopped until about 25 seconds later when the ball goes over the end line. When the center communicates with the time keeper, who obviously is in on this debacle, the clock does not start to tick down but instead goes......out!!!! We keep playing and the center ref says he "has the time". Oh I bet you do; are we gonna add an additional 12 minutes or what???? After what seems an eternity, the ref has no choice but to call the game. A great effort by the Panthers gets rewarded by another win and a tourney trophy. Congratulations to the NorthWood soccer team for winning its second overall Argos Invitational. A great effort all day by all players gets a great result. Argos was undefeated going into the final, Lakewood Park's Gerke was held scoreless. David shut both Argos and LPC threats down all day long. Our tough defense has only given up 2 goals in the last 4 games. In those 4 games we tied the first and won the last three. A nice streak that we want to continue Tuesday when we travel to Warsaw. It is time for a little pay back after that team kicked David out of our squad for the season last year. Derek was the recipient of the honorary captain's armband in the Argos game for his hard work in the LPC game. Cody received the same honor for his effort in the Argos game.