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.