Lakeland - #18 NorthWood 0-8 (0-4)

After about an hour on the bus and some rain on the way, skies clear as soon as we set foot on the pitch. The officiating trio resembles a basket of soup sandwiches and their performance comes close to matching that. The national anthem is played but so softly that it is hard to determine when it is over. A large "L" logo on the middle of the field surely set the Lakeland School Corporation back a few bucks in spray paint. FIRST HALF - The Lakers, in their sky blues, have had a rough start of the season and had already given up 30 goals in 4 matches. The Panthers add another 8 to that total tonight. After a correction by the NW bench to change the first half playing time to 40 minutes (from 45), it is time for what we came here for. Dom makes his first appearance of the season and puts his stamp on the game and the score card early. The first goal at about twenty minutes in is an own goal but comes off a Dom shot. The second goal around the 27th is a Dom goal (Grant Miller assist). The third one is a pretty one. A nicely Grant Miller placed corner reaches Carlos who heads the ball towards Maddox who heads the ball into the ropes with no chance for the Lakers keeper to get to it; 0-3! A solid shot at the goal by Jager Bute gets stopped initially by the Lakeland stopper but comes of his 2x4 hands. Carlos is quick to jump on the rebound and crushes the ball into the goal for his first and the Panthers' 4th goal of the night. HALF TIME - Some minor adjustments are made. Mark only played 14 minutes due to his injury and hopefully we can get the starters some rest for the remainder of the game with the Northridge contest looming about 23 hours out. SECOND HALF- Five minutes into the second act it is Drew Davis who finds the net for his third NW career goal (second vs Lakeland with the previous Lakeland goal coming in 2022). The pass from Dom to Grant ends up in front of Drew for the 0-5. In the same minute, Solomon Yegon assists Carlos who places a hard shot thru the keepers hands for the 0-6! Speaking of Yegon; Shifty Gifty is sick and did not travel with the team; Marshall Sell takes his spot on the defensive line (Bryce shifted to the middle). Hopefully Gif as well as Gusy and Casin are all feeling better tonight. All of them were sick yesterday. But back to the game. The center ref makes some dubious decisions with the help of his AR's but when you are up by a large margin it clearly will not impact the end result. A nice thru ball into the box sees Isaac Bell going 1v1 at the keeper and a miraculous save prevents the score from increasing. Jager scores number 7 for NorthWood (Jager Boot according to the Lakeland announcer) with a well placed ball in the left corner of the goal, well out of reach for the Lakers GK. Maddox splits two defenders inside the box to reach Sol who lifts the ball past the keeper in a very Sol way for the final score 0-8. All in all a fairly easy win for the Panthers who has all players get playing time. Trace records his first shut out of the season. NorthWood improves to 3-2-1 on the season. NOTES- Next up: Today at Northridge. Bus leaves Wellfield at 4:15pm, JV starts at 5:30 pm, Varsity is at 7:15 pm. JV will be in all white, Varsity white top and socks with black shorts.