We encounter a bit of a rough start when the alarm on the back door of the bus refuses to stop buzzing but after attempting to reset it several times, the alarm finally gives in and the bus is able to start. Time to head to Fulton County. We still have plenty of time to spare and end up having a full 30 minutes on the field. After the names are announced, or more so while the names are announced, the national anthem is played while we all try and find the stars and stripes which seems a long way off in the distance.
Jeff Iwema engages in some wall climbing as he makes his way up to the video deck to film the game.
Time for the game to start. The quality of the opponent or lack thereof is evident from the kick off. Less than 120 seconds into the game, Sol literally juggles the ball thru the defense like a hot knife thru butter and finishes his circus tricks with a goal, 0-1. Dom, not wanting to be outdone by his teammate, slices a ball to Alex who signs for the second goal (0-2) in the 8th. A lot of combinations, give and goes and switches occur until Luis pushes a ball nicely into the corner to Alex in the 18th. Instead of the expected cross, Alex slaloms around a Rochester defender and beats the keeper for a 0-3 lead.Three minutes later, Andrew finds Sol in the box who high chips the Goalie, 0-4. Dom again gets in on the action in the 25th when he delivers a nicely weighted cross to Andrew who in turn, slots the cross to the left side of the goal for a 0-5 NW lead. Joel gets the ball in the 28th when he finds the smooth feet of Alan Castro-Castillo who scores his first ever NW goal (0-6!). And it is not even HT yet! Joel, starting to enjoy assists, does just that two minutes before the Tea and finds Andrew who puts the half time score of 0-7 on the board. There is little to say at the half. A 9 goal difference will mean that the game will last 60 minutes under IHSAA rules (mercy rule) and it seems we are headed that way. The second half therefore consists of just three things worth mentioning. First off the goals; in the 44th Dom gets the ball from Alan, and dribbles thru about 3 Rochester players and ends up scoring our 8th goal. Active Alan can again be found at the beginning of our last goal when he serves Carlos in the 51st for the final score: 0-9. A high Zebras pass is cushioned brazilian style by Aiden Greenlee who makes sure that everyone in the dugout has noticed his exemplary ball handling skills (which we did). The Panthers move to 4-2 on the season. Next up is our NLC match at Wawasee on Tuesday. The JV loses to Warsaw 0-1 despite having some scoring opportunities. Today's practice is at Wellfield on turf from 3:30-5 and Monday's training will be at Welffield Park on turf from 3:30-5:30.
No comments:
Post a Comment