Game Day #5

Today's game is at Lakeland High School in LaGrange. This is a Varsity contest only. Game time is 5:30 pm. The Lakers are 0-4 on the season. The Panthers are looking to rebound after three consecutive losses. NW is ranked 13th in the ISCA rankings in 2a and 18th in 2A according to Maxpreps. It looks like we have all players back for tonight's game. Players have to be at Door 7 behind the school at 3:40 pm to load the bus for the one hour trek to LaGrange.

NorthWood - Concord 1-5 (1-1)

A decimated NW squad plays well for about 47 minutes. NW goal by Dominic De Freitas. Having to deal with suspensions, illness and injuries results in 2x20 min JV game. Varsity is 1-3 on the season after playing well for a good portion of the game in the last three games against good opponents. Next up is Tuesday's match up at Lakeland which is a varsity only game.

METERMAID VISIT.

Northridge- NorthWood 4-1 (1-1)

No national anthem, Eberle is now Erbel, announcing takes three hours and four bad moments determine the outcome. Carlos scores the lone goal off a Michal Hahn corner. NW outplays NR but does not have the luck the Raiders have with several defensive blunders by the opponent.

Next up: Concord on Saturday. 10 and 11:45 am starts. Time to start eliminating defensive miscues!!!!! Hopefully we will have officiating that does not hand out cards as if the candy store has a sale for one team only! On the scale from 1-10 the NR-NW ref gets a "3".

Kaleb Eberlinho.... with a brazilian touch!

2021 NorthWood Invitational / official start of the 2021 regular season

The first game of the Invitational features the 2-0 senior loaded Bremen Lions and the NorthWood Panthers. A hard fought battle on a toasty Saturday in front of a nice crowd (great student support) ends with new Head Coach Kyle Dijkstra recording his first official NW win. Dominic DeFreitas scores the lone winner (long distance shot which gets deflected and freezes the Bremen GK). The 1-0 win puts the Panthers in the Final at 5 pm versus the winner of the Western - #4 Mishawaka winner.

THE BLACK OUT STUDENT SECTION SHOWS UP EN MASSE!. In game 2 Western gets defeated 0-6 by Mishawaka who has the luxury of an easy win and is able to rest a lot of starters for the Final. Bremen beats Western in the consolation game and improves their record to 3-1. The 5 pm Final starts under cloudy skies but soon sees those same clouds disappear. The temperatures soar with heat radiating visibly off the turf. A great start for NW (goal in second minute by Dominic DeFreitas) turns into some decent possession soccer for the Panthers for about another 15 minutes but the ensuing 22 minutes after that are disastrous. A decent goal by the Knights is followed by a defensive miscue resulting in a goal and turns the lead quickly into the Panthers having to battle from behind. A shot/cross towards the NW goal is not dealt with adequately which gives Marian a second chance from inches from the goal line. The ball finds the back of the net, 1-3. A solid and quick moving Mishawaka Marian offense finds the ropes once more before the half for a 1-4 HT lead. The HT talk focuses on defensive organization and willingness to show some fight from within. Second half play is much better defensively with Aiden Greenlee doing a nice job at center back. Dominic moves up to midfield and Joey plays the 6. Joey ends up with a yellow caution when he tries to avoid jumping on top of a Marian player who falls in front of him. Apparently he was expected to dig a quick tunnel to avoid the guy, not jump over him. Besides this officiating blunder, overall officiating was pretty decent considering the crew of three did all four games on a tropical day at Wellfield Park. The Panthers return to action this coming Thursday when they open up NLC play at Northridge (5pm JV, 6:45 pm Varsity start). The sixth ranked Panthers are 1-1 on the young season. Practices are at the High School training field on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in preparation for the Thhursday game on grass in Middlebury.

SAME GREAT STUDENT FAN SUPPORT IN THE RED OUT VERSION FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Game Day 1

The Panthers will host the NorthWood Invitational tomorrow. Gams are at 11, 1, 3 and 5. NW will play Bremen at 11, Mishawaka MArian will face Western. The winners of game 1 & 3 will kick off at 5 pm for the trophy and the losers will face each other at 3 pm. It will be a warm one tomorrow so hydration is important!!!!! Go Panthers!

Practices Tue 8/17 - Fri 8/20

Today's practice will be on grass at the High School. The rest of the week we will be on turf at Wellfield Park.

Wawasee Jamboree

In the first game we play Manchester on a field that hasn't been mowed for a while (see the pic with 2/3 of a ball showing) and play into the wind but come away with a 1-0 win on a nice goal from Joel in the 40 minute contest. In match number two, we face Columbia City. We have quite a few opportunities, play well, combine efficiently but are unable to put the ball in the back of the net. The game ends the way it started; 0-0. The defense does not give up any goals today, we play well and have to do without Carlos and Andrew today. We now direct our attention to the next five practices before we open the season at home with a double header in the NorthWood Invitational vs. Bremen at 11 am. I will post the Invitational information later this week.

Kaleb has it all wrapped up....

Kaleb arrives at Friday's practice.

2021 Compete Week

The inaugural 2021 Compete Week concluded yesterday with the skill competition. After a week of competitions including the Pugg Tournament, the Cooper Test, the Red-Black scrimmage, 1v1 tournament and the skills competition, the trophies were awarded at the end of Friday's practice. Each competition had points attached to the results. Wes Bell won the JV competiiton, Joey Eshelman was the Varsity champion. Solomon Yegon finished second in the Varsity comeptition after he defeated Grant Miller in a sudden death PK shoot out. Grant finished third. Congrats to the winners.

What they competed for.

VARSITY CHAMPION JOEY ESHELMAN

SOLOM YEGON COMES IN SECOND AND GRANT MILLER FINISHES THIRD

WESLEY BELL -JV CHAMPION

Wawasee Jamboree 8/14/21 information

The bus leaves the Pain Palace at 9:40 am. Don't be late!! We play at 10:45 vs Manchester (not City or United) on grass, followed by a game on turf against Columbia City. Both "games" are 40 minutes without HT. An announcement will be made at today's practice about what we will wear.

Red/Black - White scrimmage 4-1 (2-0)

Another succesful Red Black scrimmage. Three points for Compete Week went to the winners, red&black coached by coach Dijkstra (sr.). Coaches Douwsma and Taylor tried every trick in the soccer book but to no avail. Head Coach Dijkstra turned in a respectable -albeit not flawless according to the coaching "staff" for red & black (PK????) - performance in the center. A great crowd consisting of family and bribed friends (thank you Joey and company). Check out the images below.

2021 Pugg Tournament - Champions, Coaches win 6th of 7 annual competition

The PUGG tournament has been played at the conclusion of two-a-days week since 2015. The coaches have won all but one (2019) tournaments. This year Coaches Brayton Taylor -not pictured/unable to compete in yesterdays game- Seth Douwsma, Kyle en Dijkstra Sr. with the addition of Bryce Knepp were the players who silenced a rowdy crowd early on and made sure it stayed very quiet after a 5-1 win in the Final.

2021 Pugg Tournament - Runner Up

Electing to play 4v4 rather then 5v5 versus the coaches, Mark, Grant, Bode, Aiden G, Wes and Soloman lost 5-1 to the Coaches; still a good result. Congratulations!!!!

2021 Pugg Tournament - 3rd Place

Michael, Andrew, Trent, Cam and Alex missed the Championship Final on goal difference but won the battle for third place.

Red-Black Game information

2021 PUGG TOURNAMENT HALTED BY STORMS

The trophies are ready (see pic), the fields are ready and so are the players. The tournament starts on time but in the 2nd minute of round 4, lightning causes the tournament to be paused and then delayed until the second half of Monday's practice. Surprisingly no players suffered -visible- ill effects from the inhaling of the dozens of donuts earlier in the day. It has been a good week of practice with lots of conditioning, skill and tactical drills. The weekend is here to rest up a little before we go into the normal season routine of 3:30-5:30 daily practices. Monday's practice/Pugg Tournament conclusion will be held on the turf albeit with probably less spectators than yesterday where we had the stands occupied by three onlookers; the largest crowd ever to witness a Pugg Tournament. The Pugg Tournament has been held since 2015.

Joey provides Krispy Kreme Donuts....

Joey drives up to the coaches this morning and says "Check out the donuts in the back". Expecting a couple of boxes, the coaches are surprised to find a couple of 2 or 3 hundred donuts in the bed of Joey's Dodge Ram. The results of a dumpster dive ending up in Joey's truck actually finds its way to many NW soccer players' stomachs. Alex leads the race and we will check on the after effects tonight before the annual Pugg Tournament.

Last day of two-a-days images......

Jerseys and practice shirts are handed out today after the Senior led run thru town.

Two-a-days keep Mr. Widner busy

On Tuesday, the entire Pain Palace is filled with soccer players. Fortunately all 4 or 5 injured players are on the mend by the end of the week and should be fit by Monday. Thank you Mr. Widner for the great care the players get all season long from early mornings to late nights!

2021 Panther Classic: Panthers reach Finals but lose to NLC foe Plymouth

The Panther Classic offers a day with 9 soccer games, plenty of sunshine and a busy day for the port a potty driver this coming week. Goals are a plenty with lots of offense and a little less defense showcased on the pitch today. The Panthers start their group play versus the Bethany Bruins and Dominic DeFreitas scores the lone Panther goal in the 36th. A defensive miscue (Landon's play back to Trace does not have enough pace) gives the Bruins the opportunity to bring the game level and with only 180 ticks left on the clock, the Panthers simply run out of time to change the outcome. We have to settle for a draw and one point as a result. Glenn defeats Bethany 2-1 which sets up a deciding game between the Panthers and the Glenn Falcons. Veteran coach Keith Meola looks like he has his players prepared and by judging their game and result versus the Bruins, this could be a tricky one for NorthWood. Kyle Dijkstra's Panthers are ready for this battle after the pre game talk. Fatigue might be the main issue during and after this game especially players who will have a good amount of playing time to their name by the time we kick off. In this 4th pre season game, the Panthers show some good possession skill -just like they did in the first game-. But unlike the first game, there seems to be more purpose offensively. In the 16th the attack from the NW side results in a Luis Castillo goal. The man who wants to wear Luis' number, Carlos Alvarez, scores goal #2 in the 35th. Dom scores his second of the day while more in an offensive MF role when he signs for the 3-0 lead. Carlos scores his second with 10 minutes left; the final is 4-0 and we need to get ready for a 6 pm Tournament Final against Plymouth. Plymouth barely beat Wawasee 13-1 after they knew they had to score 8 in order to reach the finals. The british version of Concord's Shawn McCuen was screaming his blokes to a victory ("don't be crying; it's a contact sport. if you want to play a non contact sport, pick up badminton")all the while entertaining some spectators on the east side of the field. The final sees a game that does not start out well for NW. A PK call (the ref saying a NW player "pulled" on a Rockies/Pilgrims shirt was apparently enough to justify the blowing of his flute) in the 3rd minute deflates us somewhat. Trent gets a hand on the ball but not enough to keep it out this time. It is obvious that the ref on the north side and the Panthers are not in midseason form yet. Both have room to improve. A second goal in the 6th makes matters worse. A defensive marking mistake is punished by a Plymouth striker. With three more late goals in the second half, it is the Rockies who get to take the trophy home. The tournament overall is a succes. We have now played 5 games in the pre season. We have won 4 and lost the last one, exposing some of our weaknesses that will have to be worked on. That work will start Monday morning at 9am! A shout out to Jeff Iwema and family to help with the tents and the bees, Sarah Freitas for organizing the chicken sale and all the coaches' wives for running the gate ticket stand and concessions stand from 7:30 til 7:30. As nice as the field is, it is embarrassing to not have water or decent bathrooms at the field. A park that is a Well Field should have at least water access somewhere. The lack of a shelter is also a concern for the rec league, Pumas and Panther games. For three years we have been promised that something will pop up but you can put me in the "I believe it when I see it" category. The season starts Monday with 9-11 am practices at the High School and 7-9pm practices on the turf.