Plymouth-NorthWood Sectionals pics part 1

Plymouth-NorthWood Sectionals pics part 2

Plymouth-NorthWood Sectional; pics part 3

Two refs you won't see in Regionals

Mr. Herbert Newman and Mr. Chuck Wieringa will not officiate in the 2012 Regionals according to Mr. Cox, IHSAA commissioner, due to their roles in our Sectional game against Plymouth (article Elkhart Truth sports section by Anthony Anderson 10/3/12).

Our bus driver Steve, involved in accident

Keep our bus driver Steve (Duerksen's father in law) in your prayers. He was involved in an accident at US 6 & CR 3 early this afternoon. He was airlifted to South Bend but according to Coach Duerksen, he will be okay but will remain in the hospital for now.

Ihsaa acknowledges mistake, result stands

According to Elkhart Truth reporter Anthony Anderson, The IHSAA commissioner for soccer acknowledges that referees at the Concord vs Goshen and NorthWood vs Plymouth games made mistakes by putting the wrong time for OT on the clock (2x 10 min and 2x5 min respectively) instead of the 2x7 minutes the rules call for but results at both games stand.

NorthWood improves to 9-7-2 (3-2-2 NLC)

Warsaw has just informed NorthWood that an ineligible player was used in the September 11 Varsity soccer match. Therefore this will be a 2-0 forfeit win for NorthWood. Our record is now a winning one at 9-7-2 in regular season play and 3-2-2 in NLC.

Wright State University Soccer Clinic - Nov. 17

Anyone who has signed up or will sign up for the November 17 soccer clinic at Wright State University in Dayton, OH will need to let me know tomorrow during game field clean up.

Game Field clean up

The saddest day of the season is tomorrow (Wednesday Oct. 3rd). The Varsity and JV will meet at the game field at 3:15 to take down the nets and hand in the uniforms & warm ups. All uniforms and warm ups need to be washed and put in a plastic bag. We should be done before 4 pm. This is mandatory for all players!!!!

Thank You

Thanks for visiting the blog. The blog is meant to inform and I guess, somewhat entertain while giving you my view of the beautiful game. On some days during the season, the blog received over 200 hits which means we were able to get some of the information about NorthWood soccer out to a lot of you. The blog will now fall back into the Fall and Winter sleeper mode (probably some updates like field clean up, All NLC Conference team selection, Fall Awards Night and Open Gym information) where several blogs per week will be posted to keep everyone up to date.

Off season Open Gym

Open Gym at the AC (OG/AC) will start after the State Finals have concluded on October 27. The first Open Gym will be Monday October 29th. We will play from 7-8:30 pm.

SEASON COMES TO ABRUPT END Plymouth-NorthWood 1-1 (1-1)OT/Plymouth wins PK shootout

The Panthers went ahead on a 30th minute free kick by Taylor Wegmiller but the Rockies' equalizer came only 5 minutes later. A controversial goal at that however. A high ball in the box enters the far goal box area where it is cleared off the line by Carter Dyksen. The AR raises his flag and says the ball went in the goal which turns a cleared ball (both Carter Dyksen and Kyle swear it never went over the line) into a goal. The game had already started off chippy. Taylor got whacked hard in the first minute, a foul, in my mind that warranted a card (red even maybe?). And even though we should have put the game away, we never got any breaks. Officiating was no where to be found, hand balls weren't called, fouls in the box were not noticed. It was as if the bus from the nursing home had dropped off their worst patient and gave him a referee shirt and told him that he would be picked up again in a couple of hours. He had no control of the game, called hardly anything and didn't seem to have a real grasp on the game. After regulation, the score was 1-1 which meant the game needed to go into OT. After OT (2 x 5 min, but more about this later), the score was still tied and it was time go to a PK shoot out. Unfortunately the PK shootout didn't give us the result we wanted, even though Kyle got his hand on two pk's. Winning on PK's is exciting, losing on PK's just really sucks. According to the IHSAA website, OT consists of two (2) 7 minute halves without time in between. Concord played Goshen and that game went into OT last night; they played 2x 10 minutes. So do any of these referees even have a clue?????? What is it; 2x5, 2x7 or 2x 10 minutes? Overall I believe that the officiating this year was worse then I have ever seen it. Good referees are hard to find and some of them resort to threats as soon as a player or coach questions them. The season itself was a good one, our record of 8-8-2 does not indicate how good. Consider this: 7 losses on one goal difference. One of those (against Northridge)probably should have been 2-1 in our advantage (Clay's goal taken away vs. N'ridge getting a PK). We could and should have gotten a better result versus Bremen and Wawasee and you see that some of these results that do not seem too significant at the time, catch up with the team and its record at the end of the season. This group of seniors was great (as I have mentioned before in my blog). And many of them occupied crucial positions on the team, positions that will be tough to fill next year. Considering we had only 26 players in the program (and most of the time only 24 available with some of them going both JV/V)I think we performed very well. Thanks to all the parents for helping out with the food, drinks and snacks. Thanks to Bruce and Lindy for helping with the video, Lindy also for the Kyle Cam and pictures; the Wegmillers, Seitzes, Taylors and Julie for helping out at Senior Night (food, banners, pictures etc) and I am sure I am missing some people. Maggie for doing the booth, Ryan for another great year of announcing.

Gameday

NorthWood squares off against 4-9-4 Plymouth who enters Sectional week coming off a win against NLC foe Wawasee. NorthWood (8-7-2) sails into the play offs after a win at Plymouth (4-1) and a loss on senior night against 1A #6 Bethany Christian (1-2). According to weather.com temps will fall from 64 degrees to 60 from 6 - 8 pm with 0% precipitation. Great soccer weather! Come out and support your Panthers!

TWINS (Sectional Week)

Let's hope that it will be a long week in NW soccer. Tonight (our first monday night contest of the season) we will travel once again to Plymouth for the the first round Sectional game against Plymouth. The game starts at 6 pm and the players will have to be at the school at 4:45 pm (Eusebio 4:35 pm!). If we win tonight, tomorrow's practice will be at the game field from 3:30- 5/5:30 ish. The winner of tonight's game will play Culver Academies on Wednesday at 7 pm. Wawasee and Warsaw play each other in round 2 at 5 pm on Wednesday. All games in Sectional #7 will be played at Plymouth. The winners of the round 2 games will face off on Saturday. But first things first; the Rockies tonight at 6 pm. See you in Plymouth!

Senior Night 2012 team meal part 1

Senior Night 2012 team meal part 2

NorthWood- #6 Bethany Christian 1-2 (1-0)

Coach Duerksen addresses his seniors for the last time at home.
Seven seniors played their last game on their home turf. And all but one (Tim Escoto, concussion) would start. Kyle Dijkstra in goal, Thadeus Chamberlain on defense, Eusebio Pantoja, Clayton Seitz and Travis Fleetwood in the middle and Taylor Wegmiller occupied the striker position. The first half went back and forth with both teams creating opportunities. Kyle kept us in the game with several good saves. In the 14th Brayton Taylor receives the ball on the right side and with a nice strike delivers the ball to Taylor Wegmiller near the penalty box perimeter. The Bethany keeper decides to come out and without hesitation, Taylor hits the ball on the frame over the goalie for a beautiful goal, 1-0! This was also Brayton's 5th assist of the season. In the 20th, the same Taylor (Wegmiller) receives a yellow caution. Whatever the foul was ( we had seen worse before and sure saw a lot worse later) did not warrant a yellow but it wouldn't be the refs last screw up. As a matter of fact, we really did not get a lot of calls going our way, period. The second half had a different feel to it then the first. Bethany seemed to have more energy then the Panthers and even though the seniors worked hard, things didn't seem to gel as well as they did before the tea. Kyle had to step up and make quite a few tough saves to keep us in the game. Fifteen minutes into the second half, Bethany tied the game at 1-1 and in the 58th, Kyle had to dive on a Bruin forwards' foot to prevent another goal. In the 62nd minute, Bethany attacked on the left flenk and a floater made it to one of their forwards who deposited the ball into the net for the final score of 1-2.
Bethany is a good team with a lot (10)of seniors and some very solid players. Unfortunately we were not able to come back and tie or win the game but the fact remains that we are a dangerous team that can strike at any minute, so we have never really been out of any games (with the exception being Central 2nd half) this year. The focus will be on Sectionals now where we will once again face Plymouth at Plymouth for the third time this year (both pre-season and regular season games ended in 1-4 wins). It will be a tough game for NorthWood. Plymouth is a team with little talent but they play very physical and at times we will depend on good and fair calls from referees so it does not get out of hand and in all honesty, I have not been impressed by the level of officiating this year.
All players are healthy for Monday. The bus will leave at 4:45 from the High School. The game will start at 6 pm and will be the only Sectional game played that night. The winner advances to the 7pm contest against Culver Academies on Wednesday night.

Senior Night - Final Reminders (from Lindy Seitz)

Senior night is tonight (Thursday 9/27/12). The pre-game festivities begin at 6:15.The Senior Night Meal following the Varsity Contest will be in the Elementary School cafeteria. All Varsity/JV players and their families are invited. Bring a dish to share! Special Attention Senior Parents:
Photo tables, to show everyone how cute they were when they were little, will be provided in the cafeteria. Set up time is between 4 and 6 pm. All Senior Parents will need to be ready to go and meet on the Game Field no later then 6:15 to prep for the pre-game intros!

Gameday 9/27/12 vs Bethany Christian

The JV game will start at 5 pm. After that the focus will turn to the Seniors (info at "2012 Senior Night" blog). Bethany Christian is ranked 6th in the final Coaches Poll in Class 1A and has an 11-4 record. Results with common opponents are nearly identical.