NorthWood -Wawasee 5-3 (2-2)

The JV sets the tone for the night with a nice solid overall performance. The defense does not give up a goal and on the offensive side, Marshall Beebe scores in the first and Andy Duran and Kaden Newcomer in the second for a 3-0 win. Between the JV and Varsity game, it rains hard during the warm up but fortunately that is all the rain we have to deal with tonight. The lights take effect early on with the cloudy and dark conditions. The pregame talk is fairly simple; Wawasee has had good results but they only have one very dangerous player, #4 Pena. He scores about half of their goals and is quick.FIRST HALF To prove our point, Pena scores in the second minute which does not go over well on the NW bench. We get our first opportunity in the 11th when a pass back to the hefty Wawasee keep gets mishandled. Landon has a great chance but puts it over the goal. Three minutes later, Sebastian receives a pass and scores but the goal is called offside. In minute 17, Sebastian plays a thru ball in the middle to Landon. Landon does not miss this time and hits the ropes; 1-1! 60 ticks later, a quick NW restart on a free kick lands in front of Sebastian Guillen but his effort is blocked. A Juan Pantoja cross in the 30th is not dealt with by the Warriors' defense and Sebastian takes advantage of it and finishes the ball into the net; 2-1 NW. Wawasee's #4 takes a close shot in the box from a flank cross but the shot gets saved by Micah with a miraculous left foot kick. Unfortunately, the ensuing corner goes into the right side of the goal by way of a Wawasee shoulder. The 2-2 is also the half time score. HALF TIME- Minor problems are addressed but the main one is that we need to defend set pieces better and mark better. Overall, we have played decent. It seems the first 15 minutes or so were rusty but we have not played in a competitive game in almost two weeks. Coach Duerksen asks his players to work hard and to just find a way to win this crucial NLC match. Our defense needs to improve and our offense needs to execute. SECOND HALF- We start off well. We possess the ball. With Jerson, Juan and Sebastian in the center of the midfield, we are able to transition well from defense to offense. Besides possession, we also start to make better passes and better runs but more importantly, our effort is absolutely fantastic. In the 46th, Trent -who plays a great game on both sides of the ball ALL night long- passes a ball perfectly to Landon. Landon slots the ball right for a 3-2 NorthWood lead. In the 49th, Wawasee exposes a NW weakness. A runner is not picked up on a corner. The player who is not marked goes up for a header and draws the Warriors even with the Panthers; 3-3. Some good physical battles are fought out in the middle third, some to the chagrin of the Wawasee coaches. When the AR in front of the NW bench tells them it is enough over and over again, the center ref comes running over to the NW (what?) and appears to pull a card out of his shorts. Coach Duerksen uses his best defense -which in this case is more like playing offense- by telling the ref that "it wasn't me, I didn't say anything" while pointing at the Warriors bench. As hard as it was to believe for the official that Coach Duerksen had no comment on his officiating, he does then make his way to the Wawasee bench and issues a verbal warning. The AR in front of our bench, who at times runs up and down the line making guppy faces and sounds (must be the weather) keeps an eye on their bench the rest of the game. In the 58th, Jerson gets the ball on our own half. The next play is indicative of his efforts throughout the game. Jerson dribbles the ball all the way to the Warriors box and passes the ball to his right and in front of Juan. With his -Juan's- hardest shot of the season, NW takes the lead after the ball careens off the inside of the left post; 4-3! Jerson slices thru the Wawasee midfield all night long like a hot knife thru butter and it is entertaining to watch. But, not to be outdone by his team mate, it is now Landon who decides to take the ball for a ride. In the 63rd, Landon goes by about seven Wawasee players and ends up on the left side of the pitch near the box. From there, Landon takes a nice controlled shot that disappears between the woodwork and into the net for the final score 5-3! The excitement isn't over yet, courtesy of the arbiters, however. In the 78th, Marius Ley has the ball for a throw in. With less then 120 seconds left on the game clock, he has nowhere to throw the ball since none of his teammates are unmarked. The center ref stops the clock and the game and issues Marius a yellow caution. He would deserve a yellow IF he was actually stalling but he simply took an extra three seconds to find a teammate. A poor decision by the ref. Of all the fouls that were committed during this game that were not called, the center ref decides to call this issue worth of a yellow. Other then that poor decision, the officiating was pretty good tonight. NLC battles are always heated ones. The crowd was great tonight. Despite the weather, we had a great number of fans and a good enthusiastic student section! The final score of 5-3 (with a Landon Parker hat trick!) evens the Panthers' NLC record at 1-2 and the overall record goes to 3-2. We are now ranked (!!) 25th in Class 2; well done boys! Now on to the Argos tournament.....let's get us some hardware! NOTES- Today's practice is from 3:30-4:30. The keepers will have their own separate training today with Kyle. The bus leaves at 1 pm tomorrow.