Mishawaka - NorthWood 0-7 (0-5)

The teams are announced as Eburlee seems to now be the top vote getter in the most butchered names at NW soccer games. To our surprise, Mishawaka's #12 not only gets announced as "Freight train" but his teammates actually call him that. The Mishawaka jerseys must have been designed by Freight train which seem to be rails running from the chin down to the side of the shorts. The Panthers are in no mood to wait with the scoring tonight. 120 seconds in, a Michael Hahn corner finds Dom who whips the ball into the box and to Solomon Yeagin's noggin. The redirect slams into the ropes for a aesthetically pleasing goal. 0-1! Not wanting to be outdone by Michael and Dom, Alex receives a nice long cross from the same Michael and places the ball into the box and also finds Solomon's head. Solomon repeats his first effort and scores his and NorthWood's second goal of the night in minute 11; 0-2! Eventhough we dominate play, we will not score again until the 26th when Dominic DeFreitas delivers a shot that goes to the upper left and then curls in just inside the post for a goal that seems mainly appreciated by himself and the coaches. I am not sure if the nice curl is not detected by the sparse crowd or if it is our position but it is one of the nicest finishes you will see come off the right outside boot of any player. Luis Castillo finds Carlos Alvarez in the 32nd who shoots NW to a 0-4 lead. Carlos is involved in the next goal as well when he assists Solomon on the last goal before the half; NW has 5, Sol a hat trick!. HT speech is short and with the weather going south (from drizzle to a regular rain), we are all hoping for a mercy ruled ending. The second half looks promising. In the 51st, Sol picks out Grant for a pass (after Sol brings down a ball near the box smoothly). Grant goes in the box and takes a nice shot that finds the back of the net (0-6). Luis gets taken down in the box 11 minutes later and gets to take his own PK. The self proclaimed specialist scores albeit not convincingly (keeper gets a hand on the ball) but a goal is a goal. The 0-7 lead would also be the final and we are forced to play all 80. Andrew has a great chance in front of the goal but his effort goes well over and Luis hits the post hard in the 64th. Several other chances do not go in, but with a revised formation, it is a solid result and hopefully enough practice before we take the field again in the same city but a different field and opponent Thursday night, weather permitting.