NLC Awards ALL CONFERENCE

The NLC coaches have chosen Brayton Taylor, David Eshelamn and Matt Pippinger on the All conference NLC team. Isaac Bowser received an Honorable Mention. Congratulations to all these seniors!!! Don't forget the Fall Awards for Boys Soccer; next Tuesday November 3rd at 6:30 pm at the Nappanee Elemantary School's Cafeteria.

Fall Awards - change part 2

We will have the Awards Night for the soccer program on Tuesday November 3rd. It will be for the boys soccer program only and it will be held at the Nappanee Elementary School. It will start at 6:30 pm. Open Gym at the AC (OG/AC) will start at 7 pm (until 8:30 pm) on Monday November 2nd.

ECU try outs

The try outs for ECU are on October 20th at 5:30 for 15 and 16 year old players and on October 22nd at 5:30 for 17 and 18 year old players at the Nibco soccer complex. We are hoping that a lot of our players will take advantage of this inexpensive option to play travel soccer.

Fall Awards Date Change

From the NW Athletic office: The Fall Awards have been moved to Monday November 2nd at 6:30 pm.

TODAY: Turn in Uniform and Take down the Nets Day

All players need to report to Coach Duerksen's room right after school to turn in all uniforms (clean) and all seniors will go to the game field to help take down the nets.

Add to your calendar... Fall Awards

The Fall Awards program will be held on Tuesday November 3rd, at 6:30 pm at the High School.

From the Culver Academies' Athletic website

Latest Games Commentary CMA vs Northwood 10/5/2015 CMA opened up sectional play at Warsaw High School against Northwood, a team we have never seen before. From the start, both teams showed they came ready to play, as the ball moved quickly up and down the field. Four minutes in, Adrian Juraidini had the first opportunity for either side, but unfortunately his shot went just wide right. The game continued at a fast pace, when Mauricio Bailleres picked up a ball and worked their left side, cut across the center, combining passes with Juraidini and over to Andres Sada, who sent a solid low shot past the keeper for the 1-0 lead. The rest of the half was played at the same pace, but it was Northwood who gained momentum, creating 3 solid chances that Michael Wright turned away or smothered. With just 2 minutes left in the half, Northwood took advantage of a high defensive line and sent a ball through the left side, and the follow on cross, after a scramble, found a player far post who pushed it in to tie at 1. The team captains pulled the players together at halftime and set the tone for the second half. After a see saw battle through the first 20 minutes, Bailleres was able to send a free kick over the top of the defense, and Juraidini headed home across the goal from 15 yards out to regain the lead. From there, the team started to press through the midfield, and with 9:30 remaining, Bailleres created his own opportunity, dribbling 3 defenders and then nailed a far post curler for the 3-1 lead. James Kerr finished the scoring, putting in a penalty kick with 15 seconds remaining, and the team walked off with the 4-1 win. Wright finished the game with 5 saves, the defense played a solid 2d half, limiting the opponent to 3 shots on goal. Next up is Plymouth, 7 PM on Wednesday at Warsaw H.S.

Open Gym @ the Athletic Center (OG/AC) information

Open Gym at the AC will start on Monday November 2nd. The time will be announced the week prior.

Sectional 1st Round NorthWood-Culver Academies 1-4 (1-1)

Sometimes it doesn't matter how much you prepare, what the formation is or what the strategy is. Sometimes it just comes down to who capitalizes on opportunities created. The Panthers have three (3) 1V1's in the first half (one each by AC 16"", Isaac 27" and Brayton 34") and are not able to get it behind the Eagles' keeper. The Culver keep saves all three and keeps his team in the game in the first half. The Eagles score in the 21st after a combination play gets a nice finish from #7 Sada. In the 30th, David saves the ball off of our goal line to keep us in it and a Dennyz to Brayton pass in the 38th, has Brayton taking a great shot but another goalkeeper save prevents the ball from going in. This time however, Tony crashes the goal and puts the loose ball in the ropes, 1-1. We do not make any adjustments at the half since we are playing well and are level despite some very questionable officiating. The first 18 minutes of the second half go back and forth and thoughts of a draw (PK's ?) start to surface. An undeserved free kick from Culver changes all that however. The service is to the #14 who heads the ball past Cody for a 1-2 lead. In the 71st, Culver's #10 slices thru our defense and creates a little bit of room. His curling shot seems to go wide but comes back in and around Cody and finds the net, 1-3. Only a minute later, a NW free kick taken by Isaac goes over the wall and hits the post. With about 17 seconds left on the clock and the Panthers pressing offensively, the Culver midfield counter attacks and forces a foul in the box by David. The Culver #2 connects for a 1-4 final. The end of the season for NW. The Panthers have had a great season. Their final record 9-5-3, winning the Argos tournament and coming in 4th in NLC while tying the school NLC record at 3-3-1 are all accomplishments. This same group won the Sectional last year and as coach Duerksen said, that championship is yours and can never be taken away. This group of seniors was an absolutely fantastic group of men who will be sorely missed by the coaching staff. They spent four years getting to this point. In those four years they developed as players, worked hard and committed themselves to NorthWood soccer. It is one of the best teams NorthWood soccer has had and they were one of the better teams in the area. Unfortunately, the season ends to soon. Thank you Derek, Brayton, Isaac, Dennyz, David, Connor, Matthew, Aaron, Easton and Mario!!!!!! The coaching staff loved having these guys for four years (really wish Easton would have been around for 4 instead of 1!). As coach Duerksen said last night after we got off the bus :"you will always be part of NorthWood soccer". REFEREE GRADE: A big fat bow legged "F"!!! None of the three were any good and actually a disgrace to the game. Gamal was never close enough to make a call. NW got its first free kick in the 12th of the second half(yes 2nd half!!), Rick Fischer on the bleacher side made a mess of things, screwing up an all important off side call (Tony comes off his own -!!- half for a Brayton pass) in the first half. The AR on the bench side (Daniel Gottschalk) never (!!!) once raises his flag for a foul call and does not understand the importance of this game. Frankly, none of these guys should be involved in a Sectional game. It is above their capabilities. If you don't have the feel for the game or have never played the game or understand the rules, lower level games are probably more appropriate. Not that the referees are to blame for our loss, they are not. Like I stated at the beginning, you just have to put more in the net than the opponent and last night, we were not able to do that. On Thursday we will meet in Duerksen's room after school to hand in the uniforms (clean, please). The seniors will go with the coaches to the game field to take down the nets and clean up the press box. Thanks to all the parents, grandparents, students etc. for all their support all season long. We have had the largest crowds at all games but especially home games in NW soccer history. Thanks again!!!

Sectional Gameday

Monday October 5, the day we were hoping we would not have to play. But I guess you can't get a bye all the time. Instead we drew the toughest team in the Sectional (on paper that is). The Culver Academies Eagles come into the Warsaw Sectional with a 12-2 record. They were beaten by Crown Point and Chesterton. The Eagles won their (weak) conference this season. We scouted the team against Portage this past Saturday. Culver won in the last few seconds of the game but more importantly showed us what they are and are not capable of doing. Hopefully that knowledge will help us tonight. The Panthers go into the Sectional with 9-4-3 record and have lost only twice in the last 12 games. It looks like we have a healthy squad for tonight's match up. AC, still coming back from his broken foot, is probably at about 80% and is improving every game. Everyone else seems to be at 100%. The bus leaves the school at 4:30 for the 35 minute drive to Warsaw. This is the only game being played in the sectional tonight. The winner moves on to the second game on Wednesday night (Warsaw - Wawasee is at 5 pm, Plymouth vs. tonight's winner is a 7 pm kick off). The weather at kick off is predicted to be partly sunny and 70 degrees. On Saturday, Culver did not have a large contingent of fans (see picture) and hopefully that trend continues tonight. Hopefully, the Panther fans will come out to support their team tonight in the most important game of the year. Hope to see everyone there! GO PANTHERS!!!!

Bethany Christian - NorthWood 0-1 (0-1)

It is one of those nights where not much seems to go the way it is supposed to. The JV wins 0-1 (on a very nice Landon Parker finish) but the game is scrappy and had not much fluidity to it. The Varsity warm up almost turns disastrous, twice! First, the large loudspeaker falls out of the press box, missing official Justin Bell (not to be confused with our former assistant and current NW cross country coach) by just a few feet. Right after that, one of the Varsity players shoots the ball over the goal during the shooting drill, hitting a young kid behind the goal square on the head, knocking him down. Even the introductions are horrific. Denny (?) Barahona gets introduced as does Mallett (not Mullett) and Juan gets left hanging to stand in the middle of the field by himself. The introductions are loud enough however. The announcer makes sure she can be heard over the sound of any passing train. FIRST HALF- It starts out well. AC gets the ball in the second minute in the left corner and takes it to the goal line and crosses it back to Juan. His shot finds the side net. We initially play much better than the Bruins but for some reason let them get into the game. It is a fairly ugly game to watch. Only at times do we string some passes together but it never seems to last long. In the 36th, a throw in on the right side by David finds Brayton in the box. He connects from about 8 out for the first and only goal of the game, 0-1. HALF TIME- The coaching staff feels that we do not attack the ball enough defensively and that we do not threaten enough offensively. It seems like the game plays out in slow motion. We see good efforts from Pipp, David and AC and occasionally others but there is no consistent pressure. Pipp and David are moved into more forward positions in order to score some more goals. All this to, of course, solidify the win as well as prepare for our Monday night game. SECOND HALF- We don't threaten too often in the half. Bethany threatens even less. The half ends the way it started with the score 0-1. It wasn't our best performance but we came away with a win. We have won three in a row, haven't lost in the last 4 and have only lost twice in the last 12 games. So, we get results. And that is exactly what we will need Monday night. Our opponent Monday will be the best team we have played since we faced Memorial. But more about that opponent will be in the "Sectional Gameday" post on Monday. Our regular season is over. The final record is 9-4-3. Our NLC record is 3-3-1. It has been a long time since we had a .500 season in NLC. We finished in 4th place after Wawasee beat Plymouth (4-2) last night and Warsaw beat Northridge (2-1). Our sectional opponent Culver Academies defeated Argos 5-0 to win their conference. NOTES- The JV varsity's season is over. An announcement will be made after the Varsity season is over when the jerseys and warm ups need turned in. Varsity will practice at the game field today. JV's final record is 6-10 and they finished on a positive note by winning their last two games. On a negative note, Kaden got hurt in the Plymouth game and was diagnosed with some ligament damage that will bench him for about four weeks. Monday nights in the AC will start after the State Finals have been played (IHSAA rule). The times will be announced at school and I will post it here as well. The first Monday will be November 2nd (State Finals are October 31st). REFEREE GRADE- Referee did a good job - A.

Final regular season Gameday

The Panthers are back on the road today. We travel to the south side of Goshen to meet up with the Bruins of Bethany Christian. Bethany has a 5-9 record. Take away the goals in their 10-0 win at Lakeland Christian and what they are left with is just about a one goal scored average per game. Their leading scorers are #14 Snyder and # 8 Brenneman. We will not see a Femi Hollinger-Janzen type player on the field tonight (he is by the way IU's leading scorer at the moment with 5 goals in 6 games). We have five common opponents. Bethany played Northridge (5-2 L/NW 1-1 tie), Concord (5-0 L/NW 6-0L), Memorial (3-0 L/NW 4-0L), Goshen (8-0L/NW 2-0L) and Elkhart Christian (2-1W/NW 6-0W). The GPS address for Bethany Christian is 2904 S Main Street, Goshen. South Main street is the same as State Road 15. The JV starts at 5 pm and the Varsity follows the conclusion of the JV contest. We believe this to be Bethany's senior night (does that make #5 for us?). The Bus leaves Paul's Pain Palace at 4 pm. Dress warm! GO PANTHERS!!