Lakeland today

A Varsity only match for today as the Panthers will travel to Lagrange to face the Lakers. Game is slated for 5:30 pm with the bus leaving the Wellfield complex at 3:45 pm. The Panthers are 2-3 on the season, hoping to even the record at 500. The JV has a normal 3:30-5:15 practice today. Vince will be out today to sit out the one game (red card) suspension.

COLOR INSPIRED BY SUNFLOWER FIELDS

RARE GLIMPSE OF WORKING SCOREBOARD

Northridge-NorthWood 2-1 (1-0)

What used to be a soccer field is now a combined soccer, boys and girls lacrosse field with so many different lines and colors painted on the field, you would think the Edinburgh Tattoo is about to kick off. Bathrooms are plugged, forcing players to risk their lives to play Frogger across US 20 to visit the lavatories at a gas station. The scoreboard is in about the same condition as the restrooms. It is off more often than not with time, score and comepetitors names disappearing at random. The JV Raiders defeat the Panthers 3-1 after falling behind 0-1 in the first act. The Varsity match starts around 7:15 with the sun obscuring view from the new dug outs. The Panthers settle in and play organized football for the first quarter defensively. After 18", we encounter our first defensive breakdown when NR takes the ball down the end line and the ensuing cross between the 6 and 12 does not get sufficient man marking from our left defense. An easy finish and goal puts Northridge ahead 1-0 which is also the Half Time score. It is clear that this NR team is skilled but not nearly as good as teams in the past and the Panthers have a real shot at an upset. A draw would put us in a position to win this NLC matchup in PK's. It is is however an arbitral cluster that dominates the game in the 68th minute. A loose and adventurous Raider gets fouled by Vince near the box. The awarded free kick includes a yellow caution for Vince. Several minutes later, after a official conference that seems to include the Northridhe Head Coach turns into a change of card for Vince. Apparently the center who was about 7 steps from the play, lets the AR at 38 yards away convince him that this foul deserves a red and not a yellow card. This means that not only the color of the caution changes but also changes the number of contestants on the -ugly- yellow and green pitch on this lacrosse/soccer combo complex. We are now down to 10 men. In the 70th, NR scores to double their lead to two. But the Panthers show courage and fighting spirit in the last 10 minutes as they pressure the Raiders while having a numerical disavantage. It pays off six minutes later when Jager Bute gets the ball near the top of the box and charges towards the opponent's goal. He takes a shot, it gets deflected past the NR Goalkeeper for a 2-1 lead. Cutting the lead in half puts Northridge in true panic mode. The minutes after the NW goal turn intol panic in the tent defending by the Raiders who almost get scored on when Kyler Fike threatens the NR goal from inside the 20 while the clock runs out and falls apart (the clock that is). A strange but close game ends in a narrow Raiders win over NorthWood; 2-1.

Monday Update

The JV travels about 7 miles to the west for a game versus the Bremen Lions; kick off at 5 pm. The Varsity stays behind and will have a film session followed by a light training session on the grass at Wellfield, the Home of NorthWoood Soccer.

Panthers rebound with two wins to take own 2025 Invitational

The 2025 NorthWood Invitational has NW defeating Bremen (2-1) to earn a spot in the Nightcap Final. Goals from Jager and Kyler give us a shot at another trophy! Merrillville beats Manchester in the afternoon match up. The Final is delayed by 3 (!) hours due to lightning in the area and starts at 8 pm. A NW corner finds Tyler Frye (TyFry) who heads it perfectly in the opposing corner and out of the keepers' reach. a 1-0 lead that would need some magic from GK Evander Magana after a PK is awarded to Merrillville. The Merrillville keeper is the taker and Evander the stopper of the effort, leaving the score at 1-0 which ends up being the final score of the final game. The Panthers conclude the first week of the season at 2-2-0 before taking a break in match action until Thursday when the Panthers start a three game road trip that takes us east for the first two (Northridge and Lakeland) and then west (SB Adams).

Panthers looking to rebound from early season losses

The NW Men's Soccer team loses 0-4 versus the Concord Minutemen 0-4 Tuesday evening at Wellfield Park. Despite playing a decent game, we are being outclassed by the technical skilled Concord team that shows a lot of promise of going deep into the post season. One of the goals is an OG and another is a PK. Last night (Thursday) is an evening to forget. It doesn't start out all bad when the JV beats the Bethany JV in a shortened 40 minute game 0-2 on two Bowen goals. The JV moves to 1-1-1 on the season in its quest to a record setting season. The Varsity takes on the 2023 State Champions Bethany Bruins in an unusual early start (6 pm). A couple of very early defensive mistakes turn into a score of 3-0 in the Bruins' favor. One of the goals is a very soft called PK by the center ref who would make sure that the NorthWood fans get to see a repeat of poor judgment several more times when it comes to awarding PK's. NW, not known for it's physical or dirty play, will witness this referee award two more PK's in the game to Bethany. All of them questionable at best and that is giving the last minute contracted ref the benefit of the doubt. Clearly calling this man at 2 pm for a 5 pm contest, interrupted a nap that he badly needed. Bethany ends up scoring 2 of 3 penalties. We have now been called for 4 penalties in the first two games of the season. A NorthWood record! Being behind after 30 minutes means that we are playing from behind all night. Bethany brings back 7-9 players behind the ball on our attacks and we rarely are dangerous. When a NW player gets trucked over from behind and the arbiter does not blow the whistle (just balances the plastic in his mouth, a lot of good that does), unfortunately one of the Asst. Coaches loses his cool and says "blow the whistle". That awful and hurtful comment gets a reaction from geriatric Jerry who gives head coach Kyle Dijkstra a yellow card for the Assistant's unprofessional behavior. The assistant has now halfway paid back a red card from last season. All in all, we did not play well in general, did not play well on defensive specifically and were unable to provide a lot of hold up play on attacks or semi-attacks. Stuff to work on with not a lot of time because we play game 3 and 4 tomorrow at the NorthWood Invitational(first one at 10 am). Jager Bute scores the comfort goal with minutes left in the game and sees another shot rejected by the woodwork. NOTES: Practice today at Wellfield on the turf from 3:30-5. This will be a light training. After tomorrow we will have played 25% of the regualr season games in a five day period.

The new logo unveiled

2024 is the 30th anniversary of NorthWood Men's Soccer. To mark this anniversary, a new logo will be on our new jerseys and merchandise this season. Check out the webshop on bsnsports.com for all our merchandise with the new logo.

Pre-Season Tournament 2024

The pre-season tournament will be held on Saturday August 3rd, 2024 at Wellfield Park. Additional information, including the draw will be published in the next few weeks. The tournament opener will be between Bremen and NorthWood at 8 am.

2024 Summer Calendar

OPEN FIELDS - Mondays 6-7:30 pm & Thursdays 7:30-9pm. SOCCER CAMP - Monday June 17 - Thursday June 20 : 9:30-11 am. First Day of 2-a-days: August 5, 2024.

End of Season Announcements

Kyle will send out a Remind with the information on uniform turn in and helping to get the equipment out of the Locker Room Wednesday. Attendance is mandatory.

#20 NorthWood - # 16 West Noble 1-2 (1-0/1-2 after ET) - Sectional Championship

In what turns out to be the final team huddle of the season, the Panthers take the field on a cool and blustery Saturday afternoon in the 2023 Sectional Final. The Panthers go ahead on a 6" goal from Dominic DeFreitas. This score stand until a defensive miscue with 10 minutes left in the game. The ensuing free kick is deflected and therefore out of reach for Trace Roja. This then sends the game into Extra Time (2x 7 minutes). Another defensive mistake gets the Chargers their second goal in de the first half of extra time. Despite a barrage of attacks by the Panthers, the ball doesn't roll our way. The season ends despite great play in the play offs in which we were the better team in both games. A large and engaged crowd saw an entertaining game. The season comes to an end and the Panthers finish with a 9-8-1 record. A great effort was put in by all and the Seniors played their hearts out! Unfortunately this is where it ends for them. Thank you Seniors for four years of hard work!!!!

A large crowd sees the Panthers lose to West Noble in a Sectional Finals thriller.

Game Day 18 Sectional Championship Saturday 10/7/23 @ 2 pm - # 20 NorthWood - # 16 West Noble

NorthWood tries to make it back to back Sectionals as they play in their first home Final ever. This is the second Sectionals hosted by NorthWood; the last one -4 years ago- was won by West Noble. The Chargers have a 11-4-3 record, the Panthers are 9-7-1. The teams have 5 common opponents, both of them going 3-1-1. West Noble is 53-12 in the Goals Scored and Given Up categories and obviously has a very good defense.The Panthers have scored 49 but given up 33. But none of it matters because it now all comes down to how this Final will be played by either team. Sol has been ruled out for the rest of the season sustaining an ACL and Meniscal tear in the last play of Monday's practice while Goalkeeper Trace Roja is expected back tomorrow. The weather will feel much different from the last game; it will be 51 and cloudy but it will feel colder with NW winds expected to be around 17 mph at kick off.

#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!!

Game Day 17 Garret - #20 NorthWood

NorthWood will don the away kit since the draw placed us there. The Panthers are 8-7-1 and the Railroaders are 7-8-1. The Panthers have scored 46 goals on the season and allowed 33 where Garrett has scored 22 (6 by #15 Leech) and given up only 18 in 16 games. NorthWood looks to be without keeper Trace Roja and Solomon Yegon tonight and therefore battle a bit of adversity. It looks to be one of the last nice warm fall nights for the foreseeable future so we are hoping for a nice crowd tonight. Lakeland (with only two wins all season) will take on West noble in the early game. First game at 5 pm, NW kicks off at 7 pm.

NorthWood Sectional Update

#16 West Noble beats Wawasee 2-0 and Lakeland upsets Angola 2-0 which sets up the 5 pm Wednesday Semi Final West Noble - Lakeland. #20 NorthWood faces Garrett at 7 pm tomorrow.

Final ISCA Poll of the season

NorthWood drops to #20 in the final poll of the season. The Panthers were as high as #15 this season but have been ranked all year for the first time in school history. West Noble is the only other ranked team in our Sectional at #16.

NorthWood-Plymouth 2-3 (0-1)

13" 0-1, 60" 0-2, 61"1-2 PK (Carlos), 73" 1-3 (PK), 78" 2-3 (Dom). A sparse crowd on Senior Night witnessses a 2-0 JV win. One of the best seasons for our JV finishes at 7-8-1. The Varsity ends the regular season at 8-7-1 and now starts to prepare for a Garrett team that has had a good season and all reports indicate they will be a tough opponent. A loss to Plymouth puts us only ahead of Mishawaka and Wawasee in the NLC meaning that we will end up with very few All NLC awards. A very disappointing result. Seniors Trace Roa, Mark Santos, Solomon Yegon, Grant Miller, Carlos Alvarez-Ramirez, Wesley Bell, Gifton Yegon as well as Foreign Exchange Students Michele Calderone (Italy), Sebastian Lindstrom (Sweden), Bruno Castrillo and Aimar Legaz Pagan (both Spain) played their last regular season game.

Game Day 16 - Final game of the regular season

#18 NorthWood will host its Senior Night tonight at Wellfield Park. The opponent is Plymouth who beat us 1-4 in the pre-season. The Pilgrim/Rockies are 5-8-1 on the season with wins over Argos (2x), Mishawaka, LaPorte and Logansport. Their 6'2" Forwards Zalaya (#11) has scored 13 times and will be the topscorer on the pitch tonight. The Panthers fell two spots in the rankings last week to #18. They were surpassed by West Noble who could be a Finals opponent in Sectionals if the Panthers were to beat Garrett. But tonight the focus is on two other things; the Seniors who have helped the program for the last four years (with Carlos being the lone player who also appeared on the Varsity Roster during our Semi State game in his freshman year) and of course the result of tonight's game. A win will guarantee a winning season. Jager is out for tonight, everyone else seems to be healthy enought to play. JV plays at 5:30; Varsity at 7:15 pm. Bring an umbrella!