#20 NorthWood - Garrett 3-0 (2-0)

After # 16 West Noble finishes off Lakeland (8-0), it is time for the other remaining ranked team to take care of business. The warm up still seems a little lackluster but the hope is that the energy will change come kick off time.

The pre game talk contains references to our injured and sick team mates Trace and Sol and that we want to give them a chance to play Saturday.

It is one of the best nights weatherwise for soccer this season and as Billy Joel would say or sing rather, the regular crowd shuffles in. By kick off time the stands and apron are filling up nicely.

The Panthers start with energy and conviction although the first ten minutes are a little jittery from both sides. Understandable obviously with what is at stake. NorthWood's Head Coach Kyle Dijkstra has to make quite a few changes with the starting keeper trace Roja being under the weather and Solomon having to sit off with a knee injury. Maddox Brown takes the spot between the woodwork just as he did in the first game of the season. Hopefully this won't be our last. Michele Calderone and Jager Bute fill the spots on the field vacated by Sol and Maddox. After things settle down a bit, NW begins to threaten more. Aware of the fact that the Garrett keeper is one of the best we will see all season, scoring will be a challenge. A ball that seems to go out of play over the end line gets crossed by Dom from the right straight to Carlos who taps it over for what seemed to be a chance for an early lead. Three minutes later, the Railroaders get their first chance but their effort is saved by Maddox.The 23rd minute sees a lot of action in front of the Garrett goal; Grant shoots a high ball that requires a tip from the GK and Dom's shot in the same minute has the man in pink make another save to prevent the first goal of the game. NW keeps threatening and in the 24th produces a very nice goal that involves half of the field players. Wes Bell finds Dom who crosses for a switch with authority to Grant who controls it with one touch and finds Carlos who redirects it to Jager. Jager makes a move and takes a shot that finds the back of the net for the 1-0 lead.Only 5 minutes later, the Panthers threaten once again when a ball on the left flank has Carlos aggressively attacking at speed. As he tries to pass the defender, the defender seems to get the ball, kicks it but it ricochets off of Carlos' head. He goes into the box and places the ball at the goal. It rebounds off the GK back to Carlos who shoots the dust off the ropes for a 2-0 lead. The Railroaders coaching staff call for a handball (referring to the ball that hit Carlos' head) but after the referee confers with the AR, it is determined to be a goal. The people who had the worst angle (or no angle) on that play were the Garrett coaches. Therefore any protests after that (and there were plenty of them) were mostly unbelievable. The complaining might have helped when Dom shoots the ball so hard into the goal with no chance for the Railroaders stopper to even get close but the goal is disallowed for offside. Probably a result of all the complaining from the visitors bench. The half time talk focuses on keeping composure and closing out the game. Garrett, a team not known for scoring a lot, will be done, is the thinking, if we put in one more. In the 51st, Garrett gets a great opportunity and their forward takes a hard well placed shot in the right corner but an amazing dive and save by Maddox keeps the ball out of the net. The final nail in the proverbial coffin comes in the 54th when Jager scores after a throw in from the right side for his second (brace) and the Panthers' third and final goal of the night. By the time there are 15 minutes left on the clock, both teams get to put all the bench players in to get some minutes on the field at Sectionals. A very hard working energetic NW team that saw Michele start and Sebastian get a lot of minutes (with lots of energy and threatening offensive soccer) get the well deserved victory and if we continue this type of performance, Saturday will be an interesting match up with West Noble at 2 pm. NorthWood moves to 9-7-1 on the season and tries to get back to back setional Championships Saturday! The overall team performance was the best it has been all season and we could name all players individually for their performance because the passing was without a fault as crisp and accurate as we have seen all season and the urgency was clear to everyone off the pitch!! A job well done !

Maddox Brown, back up keeper, starting for the second time this season, gets a clean sheet!!