NorthWood - Mishawaka Marian 0-0 (0-0)

The visitors are coming off a strong performance against Penn where they lost 5-4 in a PK shoot out. Our officials look like flamingos and late in the game make a decision that you would think only a flamingo could make. The Panthers start out with lots of energy, great passing and overall good soccer. Early on, Jager brings a ball into the right corner and places the ball behind Gusy but in front of Brian. His shot misses to the left of the frame but the build up is promising. Marian has turned into a long ball attacking team which seems odd considering they seem to have the talent to build up thru the middle. The Panthers keep battling and keep passing well and use a combination of possession and counterattacking long passing. The second half looks much the same as the first where both teams get opportunities to score but fail to do so. Gusy gets closest to scoring when a cross from the right gets cleared by a Marian knee just before he can push the ball over the line. The Marian keeper is suspect at best and gives us some secondary chances at scoring. With about 13 minutes left on the clock, a Knight attacker penetrates the NW box and after being barely touched in the back by a NW defender, goes down very easily. The Center ref, who has the name of giving up soft PK's of the flopping variety, points to the spot. Evander dives to his right and stops the PK. The pink AR watching over the PK has the center ref retake the PK for Evander coming off his line too early. That call is also seldom made. The same player has to re-take the PK. This time he misses again and shoots the ball way over. The last 12 minutes are frantic and goes back and forth until the clock runs down to 0:00. Final 0-0, a fair result and a good result for the Panthers but more importantly, a very well played game. It was a good performance for 80 minutes! The Varsity moves to 6-6-2 on the season. The JV loses 0-2 and slides to 4-8-2. The next game is the away fixture at New Prairie tomorrow.