South Bend Adams was the first opponent in the Argos pre-season tournament. A very good and organized first 20 minutes shows a lot of promise for the upcoming season. A great combination from the back from Joey to Michael in the middle to Luis on the flank to Joel in the box showed some promising attacking capability. It is clear that we are not where we need to be conditioning wise and that resulted in us playing on our heels for the second half of the first half but a lethal counter that sees the ball land in front of Joel has him shoot and pass the keeper for a 1-0 lead. Adams ties the game in the second half. Penalty kicks shoot out are on the menu now and after those are tied after each team takes five we go to the sudden death conclusion, albeit after a bit of officiating confusing which goes to show you that even the referees are not in mid season form. Grant Miller executes his PK well, SB Adams does not. NorthWood wins its first game of the season, Kyle Dijkstra the first of his career.
Game two features a Panthers match up between NW and Griffith. Despite Griffith being short on players, they put up a good fight. NorthWood seems to assume to not have to work as hard. A fairly sloppy game where not being in shape does not help the quality of the game. The entertainment value is pretty good however. Aiden Schrock scores the first goal of the game and Griffith manages to tie it 1-1. In the second half, Michael Hahn scores his first offiial goal while back at NorthWood for a 2-1 lead. Michael does miss a pk and Grifith does not and the game is balanced once again. When the final whistle blows we are again headed for PK's. No second round this time however after Trent Iwema stops all three (!!!!!!!) and NW connects on their first three for the second PK shootout win of the day, a NorthWood first!
Next up is the Panther Classic this coming Saturday where we host 9 games. The first game is at 8 am with a Bremen-Wawasee matchup. NW takes the field at 9:15 vs Bethany. Our second game will be at 2:15 vs Glenn. A full schedule will be posted here later this week.
