THE BANNER WELCOMES FANS TO THE REGIONALS AT WELLFIELD PARK.
The stands are at capacity and then some as many fans resort to seating on the cement pad. The west side of the field is packed with fans for tonight's Regional games. It is a bit cool but the main challenge in the first half is the wind. It blows hard from west to east and these conditions do not lend themselves to passing soccer which has been NorthWood's strong point all season long. Most possession strings are less than 6 for the Panthers and the Knights play their typical long ball, look for forwards to run onto the ball and shoot type of soccer. In the 7th, Solomon breaks thru and only has the GK to contend with. The Marian stopper takes Solomon out and gets a yellow caution. The case can be made that the keeper is the last defender on a goalscoring opportunity and should therefore receive a red but my hunch is that the referee is reluctant to send off a player this early (time into the game should not matter). A golden opportunity disappears with the free kick. In the 19th a floating ball into the box has the Marian keeper come out and while making half a save, lands on his head in the box. He has the presence of mind to make an additional two stops after that in ensuing play. In the 31st, a Marian attack in the box is not dealt with in first or second chance and somehow the ball gets poked over the line for a Marian 0-1 lead. This is also the HT score. At the half we talk about how our energy needs to be up, that we need to go hard for the balls in the box and that we need to do better on second balls. We come out to play and since the wind died down quite a bit, are we now able to play more of our possession style soccer. Dom and Sol both have chances that both look to go in but miss by the slimmest of margins. We get close several times but are unable to get the ball into the goal. Trent Iwema has a lights out second half performance when he stops several Marian attacks, some from very close range. In the last 7 or so minutes of the game, Gifton gets pulled as a defender in exchange for another forward; we are now playing a 2-5-4 and basically attempt to attack with 9 while leaving Aiden and Ethan back by themselves. MF's have to come back and help defend but that is not always possible when we lose the ball attacking. Despite the overload on offense, we are unable to score and the season ends with a 0-1 loss to Mishawaka Marian. Our final record is 12-6-2 with a Sectional Championship.Of the 6 losses, four are one goal losses. We ended up with 10 shut outs (a NW season record). Counting our pre season tournament and Jamboree, we played 25 matches, losing only 6. A lot of our players were on the semi state roster and with two Sectional Championships, one Regional Champsionship and Final Four appearance have been part of the most succesful four years in NorthWood Boys Soccer history. Trent Iwema kept us in the game all night long. Aiden, Ethan and Gifton played not only well tonight but were solid all season long, frustrating opponents to no end. Landon, Luis, Dom, Alex, Carlos, Solomon, Joel, Grant, Maddox, Andrew Myers and Wes all had a good game tonight and had great seasons. Alan and Allessandro who only came out this year contributed to the team as well. Our younger guys like Bryce, Jack,Mark, Drew got minutes this year that will help them in the coming years. This entire group was a very talented one and deserved the success they got this season. And the future looks bright as we bring back 11 guys from this season's roster but at the same time having to bring up about as many from this year's JV which means that there are a lot of opportunities for the younger guys. A special mention and shout out to Trace Roa who has been in the unfortunate role of having been the back up keeper. Trace played every minute on JV and on top of that played in several Varsity matches. He is very talented and athletic and will be counted on next season to defend our goal all season long. His patience and hard work will pay off and he has shown us already that he is very capable at the varsity level. Carlos was on the sideline tonight after having had surgery Wednesday. The future looks bright and we are looking forward to next season but I have to say that it is sad to see our seniors having played their last game. I am glad they could do it in front of a capacity crowd (thanks to our athletic office for postponing the game one day) and in a Regional game at that! They have lived up to our expectation. A lot of the seniors have been coached by Kyle and myself for 6-7 years so it is hard to let them go. Thanks as well to Randy Cripe and Kyle Cripe for announcing and running the scoreboard. Thanks to the Greenlee's and all the parents who helped in one way or another by supporting the teams with food or whatever was asked for by the coaches. It is very much appreciated. A special thank you to Jeff Iwema who through all Cam's and Trent's playing days has supported our teams with tents, water, Propel and was our film man as well. the game film is a very important part of our game prep and we thank him for doing that for all these years (because you do not get to sit back and enjoy the games). I am sure I am forgetting people and I apologize for that. It is not intentional. Thanks to our Atheltic Department; Roman and AJ are the best supporters a coaching staff could have. Thanks to Chris Davis and his staff to work with us on being able to use the facilities at Wellfield Park. What a facility that is! And with a new press box and dug outs anticipated for nextyear, it will be even better. Thanks to Michiana Promotions for broadcasting so many of our games over the years! Thank you Ron, Craig and Ryan! My final shout is to my co-coaches: Our head coach Kyle, who has done a great job and prepares the team for each game in a way that leaves very few questions on how the players need to play, Seth and Brayton who had a very successful JV season and Andrew who was able to work with our keepers this season. It has been a fun season! I will leave you here with some images of the semi final Regional game.......
THE TOUGH PART...THANKING THE TEAM AND ESPECIALLY OUR SENIORS, ONE MORE TIME
CARLOS KEEPING HIS SPIRITS UP. CARLOS SCORED THE SECOND GOAL IN THE SECTIONAL SEMI FINAL AND HAD TO HAVE SURGERY A WEEK LATER; HE WILL BE BACK STRONGER NEXT YEAR!
CARLY MAST, THE GIRLS GK, SANG THE NATIONAL ANTHEM BEFORE THE GAME AND DID A GREAT JOB!
THE FROGGY/MICHIANA PROMOTIONS CREW AND THE CRIPES HARD AT WORK
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