Goshen_#9 NorthWood 0-0 (0-0)

The JV loses a close game 2-1; Soloman scores the lone Panther goal.VARSITY FIRST HALF - Goshen games start late (5:30 JV/ 7:15 pm Varsity kick off). Temps are starting to get a fall like feel and for the first time of the season, the warm ups have to be dug out of the back packs. The Panthers are healthy and start in their by now familiar starting lineup. The game start is familiar at well with Goshen Coach Vi suggesting each and every play right before it is conducted ("swing it, swing it", "one two, one two".....oh for the love of Pete!!!) and at times he is more annoying than my dog at home who barks contantly. The game itself is a "skip the midfield" session in the first part of the first half. The first Redhawks threat comes in the 19th on a hard shot at Graber but as ususal, he makes the save. We have grown accustomed to Graber saves to the point that if a ball rolls over the line, we are all in shock. The first real NW opportunity comes on a free kick just outside and to the right of the Goshen box. The free kick goes at the frame but is deflected by a Goshen defender. NorthWood's next chance is probably the best one we will get all night long. An attack on the right side starts with a nicely weighted Kayden Newcomer pass to Andre De Freitas. Andre dribbles into the box and pulls the ball back between the 6 and 12 where Sebastian Guillen is in a perfect position. No Goshen defenders are close and Seba gets a real crack at this one. He shoots the ball hard but gets under the ball and the ball goes over....over the locker room building for that matter. Half time score therefore stays at 0-0. HALF TIME - The tea time talk stresses the importance of crossing the ball in the box and taking shots at the Goshen freshman keeper. Some other defensive adjustments are suggested and coach Duerksen asks for a little bit more effort from the team; a good result will be rewarded with a short and easy Friday practice! SECOND HALF - The back and forth game continues in the second half. Both teame have small opportunities but neither team takes advantage of them.In the 68th a pass to Andre's right into the box from Seba turns into a hospital ball when Andre and the Goshen GK collide. Both stay down but both are able to continue play. Things get dicey in the 70th. A cross into the Goshen box near the pk spot has the Goshen defense scrambling. A desperation kick misses the ball near Sebastian but does not miss Seba's face. The Goshen defender kicks Sebastian in the head when Seba attempts to head the ball. Sebastian goes down but the "referee" motions to play on. Coaches scream "foul" and want the game stopped but the "referee" is oblivious. He finally allows play to stop and as the assistant coach walks on the field I can tell what is going on in the coaches head. He screams at the ref that Sebastian got kicked in the head. His -ridiculous- response? "A kick in the head is not a foul". I know that when the coach screams at him the way he does and does not get a yellow caution, the ref knows he was wrong. But none of this is a consolation. We do not get the PK we deserve. The expecation was that the AR on the stand side would make "mistakes" tonight but he was nearly invisible. Somehwat remarkable and encouraging so I am sure that his ride home on his horse was a satisfying one. The center ref's performance was fairly weak overall but on a scal from 1-10, gets a 3 for missing the biggest call of the game. In the 73rd, Goshen lasers a shot at Graber and he comes up big with a diving save to his left and punches the ball away from the frame. NW gets a number of chances in the last few minutes of the game, one being a free kick from Andre that doesn't have enough mustard on it. Our defense plays well although our outside defenders struggled with the passing out of the back for a good portion of the night. The same can be said about our midfielders. They battled hard, played well defensively and put in a lot of work against a technically skilled team but again, the passing was off. And then it is hard to get the ball to our two forwars. All in all, we had our chances and did not execute offensively. We did good enough defensively to hold the zero for another shutout.Dutch Touch POTG goes again to Andrew GRaber. NOTES - Today's practice will be light and short. Tomorrow the Varsity has an early game at Jimtown (10 am) and the JV travels to Goshen again for the NLC Invite for an even earlier game versus Plymouth (9 am). The JV's second game will be at noon.