NorthWood-South Bend St. Joe - Regional Final 2-1 (1-0)

It is a decent night weather wise, considering it is the middle of October. It is a bit windy but not as impactful as we anticipated. We find out that playing the National Anthem seems to be one of the toughest challenges for Public Address announcers; today we get to hear the second half of it. Announcing players' names is the other challenge. Again so today. Today it is Kayden's turn to have his name altered to Newcoooommmeeerrr.

With the scoreboard at 0-0 and ability to record shots and corners, it is time for the kick off. It was clear after we scouted the morning match, that St. Joe is a team that likes to defend and combine from the back. They are not a dirty or physical team and with our own ability to move the ball around, it is clear early on that this should be an entertaining and intriguing soccer game. The first chance in the game comes off a tightly directed Andre De Freitas cross from the right flank. An agressive Sebastian Guillen attacks the ball with his head and it goes on the frame. The (very good) St Joe keep makes his first but not last save of the night. Headers are one of the themes of the night as a 9th minute corner again is headed by Sebastian, this time the ball slips just to the right of the goal. A lot of back and forth soccer with considerable skill takes place in the middle of the first half. We look comfortable on the ball and play with confidence even though our opponent threatens at times but not to the point where St. Joe is dominating until about the 26th when a St. Joe corner needs Graber to stretch and tip the ball over the cross bar. We give up numerous corners in the first half, fortunately none have disastrous consequences. Two minutes before the half Andre gets fouled in the St Joe box and the ref calls for the PK. Sebastian sends the keeper the wrong way and NW leads 1-0 going into the half. The second half starts with the Indians pressing. Seven minutes into the second half, the Panthers foul outside our box. The free kick goes thru the Panthers' wall and gets slighlty deflected and Graber is unable to keep it out of the net; 1-1. In the next minutes we give up several free kicks in the same area. The free kick in the 48th is initially tapped out by Graber and the ensuing header from Sebastian (who either tries to head it over the goal or head it back to Graber) needs a Stretch Armstrong type save from Andrew Graber to prevent the ball from going in. Graber keeps us in the game and in contention for a night where NW Boys history can be made. In the 50th, NW gets a corner on the left side. The near post curler is tight and is attacked in a Ronaldo style fashion by Chase Duerksen. The header/shoulder connection with the ball lasers into the net and the St. Joe keeper is not even close to getting to it; 2-1 Panthers! Thirty minutes is a long time to have to hold on to a one goal lead. NorthWood battles and defends well. The switch up top is made where Kayden comes back in Andre's spot and Andre stays up top where he remains a threat. This means that St. Joe is unable to send more defenders forward to attack. Both teams have minor chances and despite a very nervous last 7 minutes, the Panthers hold on to the 2-1 lead and get to lift their first ever Regional trophy and earn their way to the program's first ever Semi State. There are now only four (!!) teams remaining in Class 2A in the race for the State Championship. We find out hours later that we will face Ft. Wayne Canterbury (another private school) at 3 pm at South Bend St. Joe. That game will be played on turf which means that we will prepare this week on our own turf field.Our defense does a remarkable job. Nick took a hard shot to the head off a Indians free kick but was checked out by the Marian trainer. Our midfield worked hard all night. Chandler had a great move around the St. Joe left defender in the second half that we replayed several times on tv after the game and we were unlucky to not get a goal scoring chance off of that. Our forwards battled hard all night. Graber was outstanding once again and made sure we stayed in the game. Joel had a chance for a goal late in the game but despite a great run in the box, ended up "colliding" with the keeper. All in all a good game. We played well and certainly deserved this win. The officiating was good to very good tonight. That doesn't happen a lot. Maybe as the level of play goes up as we go along in the tournament, so will the level of arbitration. NOTES: Practice today at Wellfield Park ("the Home of NorthWood Soccer") from 3-4:30. The coaches have started their research on Canterbury and we will begin working on the game plan this afternoon.