NorthWood - Bethany Christian 1-0 (1-0)

A NICE HOME CROWD CAME OUT FOR SENIOR NIGHT Senior Night goes off without a hitch (the proof is in the pudding in the pictures below). It is a sunny and for a while, comfortable evening. All seniors and Gifton start the game for us versus a Bethany squad that resembles NW in many ways. For the first 15 minutes or so, play goes back and forth and not many chances are created. The Bruins dictate most of the play. After about 20 minutes, the run of play seems to switch NW's way. Dominic has barely entered the game when one of his first passes is a perfect one and finds Solomon in the box. Solomon is able to keep a Bethany defender on his right side and uses his lethal left foot to slot the ball past the Bruins stopper for a 20" 1-0 NorthWood lead. The rest of the first half sees most of the action play itself out in the middle third of the field. Our defense hangs back a little too much, forcing our MF and forwards to fall back a little too far. Few opportunites arise in the remaining minutes of half number one. At halftime we talk about how the defenders need to get their marks to allow wingbacks to go up and be able to transition offensively a little better. We also need to find a way to get the balls in the opponents' box; their keeper is somewhat unsure of himself and we need to try and get a second goal. As it normally does in close games, it is the anxiety that kicks up a notch but in this case some of it is artificially produced by AR2 who, might I say, is just having a BAD SEASON! On his earlier trip to beautiful Nappanee, he was able to take the limelight in a negative manner by officiating so poorly that would have looked bad in a U3 game! Tonight he again is oblivious to his role. AN AR is what the name implies.... an ASSISTANT Referee. So in his mind this translates to DEMANDING something from the Center official and not merely assisting him. On a 61st minute "foul" by Grant Miller, does he not only wave his flag as if he is giving signals from a Navy Destroyer, he also motions his hand over his shirt pocket to indicate it is a foul worthy of a yellow caution. As much as the center ref ignores him initially, he eventually caves and "awards" Grant the yellow card. The ensuing free kick almost costs us a goal. It is utterly ridiculous to officate from the sideline in this manner and clearly indicates a lack of understanding of the game. So, the most disappointing performance tonight comes from officials but that has been the case numerous times already this season. With some of the better officials not even making themselves available for Sectionals (reffing club soccer is more lucrative), we end up with poor officiating in some cases. Let's just hope we do better in the post season in that category this year. Dom does end up with a yellow in the 72nd but this one is justified; it is a cynical but "good" foul to stop play. So we end up with two yellows, one win and some momentum going into Sectionals on Senior Night. All yellows reset now. It is a good night overall for the Panthers who record another shut out win (8 for the season) and travel to Angola with a 9-5-2 record. Practice today is Varsity only and from 3:30 - 5 pm and in preparation for our game vs Lakeland Monday, a practice has been added for Saturday morning from 10-11:30 am. Both will take place on the grass at Wellfield. From reports we have received, the grass field at Angola has taken a beating from the recent rain and is in very poor condition. It sounds like it might look a lot like the "field" we played on at Plymouth; bumpy and crappy. The JV defeated Bethany's JV on a Kyler Fike goal, 1-0. The JV's final record is 6-6-4 and was in almost every game. It is also one of the better JV records in school history so Congratulations on a good season to the JV players and Coaches. A lot of these JV players will transition to Varsity players by next August.