2002
Titans
4/19/02 - St. Alberts
Tonight we grew up. Tonight we became a team. Tonight we put true meaning behind the saying "When you are number two, your job is to always be ready, because you never know when you will need to be number one". Cross town rival St. Alberts came to our field tonight and they came ready to play. Before the game even starts we find out that two starters are down, one to injury and one to 103 temperature. One back up player rolls his ankle in gym class and is out, while another has left town for the weekend and won't be available. We start Andy Himes in midfield and Dan Black at defense. Both kids know their own role and stepped in and played very well. Then in the second half Dan Black collides with some one and crush's his nose. He comes out and in goes Doug Junior. Doug has showed in JV that he deserves some playing time because he always goes hard. Doug stepped in and played very well. Any way for the game, the whistle blows, the game starts and within 31 seconds it was 1-0. We put together about six perfect passes, moved right down the field, played the ball to the corner, Jesse Smith crosses the ball in and Jimmy Johnston is right there to put it in. 30 minutes into the first half they punch one in and we are tied at the half 1-1. Overall we might have been out played the first half and we asked the boys to pick it up. 19 minutes into the second half Doug Junior is taken down from behind in the box and they call a Penalty Kick. Jimmy Johnston steps up and knocks it in the back of the net and we go back up 2-1. With just over 7 minutes left in the game Jesse and Jimmy hook up one more time on a beautiful cross and with a leaping shot Jimmy hits the ball off the side of his foot into the goal. That gave Jesse two assists for the night and best of all a Hat Trick for Jimmy. First ever Hat Trick for Jimmy and for us as a coaching staff. Overall everyone deserves to be mentioned tonight for really stepping up and being ready to play. Justin Toole had a splendid game with some great saves once again. Zach Paulson was a nail at defense tonight, nothing got around him. Ross Shepard was the quite unsung hero tonight, he got the heck beat out of him, drew a lot of attention, and didn't score. But the attention on him only opened up others. Daniel Knigge and Seth Jackson together did a great job moving people around and making sure that we were where we needed to be. Josh Grosvner stepped up his play tonight and won a lot of one on one's tonight and played some smart soccer. We will give them the weekend of and prepare on Monday for Riverside. Riverside comes to town on Tuesday. They play us tough every year, in fact it went to OT last year. |
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As for JV, well guess what, they lost and won tonight. I truly believe that they matured and really grew up tonight. We only played one half of JV tonight because of numbers on the St. Alberts side. They took a 3-0 lead in the first 20 minutes and once again we looked confused. We made some changes in the last 20, moved kids around and pulled the majority of the Varsity players that have been playing down with them. We told them to look around, this is what you have, this is what you are. Learn to like it, learn to play together, if you can't, then sit on the bench because we have kids that want to play. We challenged them to at least win the second half on the field, what the score is at the end doesn't matter, just work together and learn who you are. They played the last 20 minutes very well. John Koucerek and Jeff Walters managed to hook for a goal. That was Jeff's first goal for the season and it was nice to see him get it. They needed that and you could see that it really pumped them up. They still lost 1-3 but at the end they were so excited that they scored you would have thought they won. I told them ignore the score, you did win, you came together, fought hard and won the last 20. They still have a long ways to go but I think even they saw that the potential is there. |
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Thank you all for your support and your visits to our page. Keep checking back I will post different things off and on. Interested in how the boys did and what they look like, then check out the 2002 Varsity Squad & Stats and 2002 Junior Varsity Squad & Stats pages to see our running season stats. Check back again for more comments. |