5/04/09 - Harlan -

A perfect day for soccer, weather was great and the field was in good shape.  We traveled to Harlan for a big Hawkeye-10 conference game with an opportunity to stay in the conference lead with a win.  We needed to attack, possess the ball, and score early.  We did just that by scoring the first goal less then 8 minutes into the game.  Nate Jones sends a crossing ball across the front of the goal.  It goes back post and Josh Larson is there to strike the ball in for his first goal of the season.  At the midway mark of the first half Nate Dreager sends a through ball to Josh Larson,  Josh beats his guy to the ball and beats the keeper for his second goal of the season and of the game.  We manage to hold off many attacks as they pick up the intensity and get to the half 2-0.  We remind them that a 2-0 lead is the worst one to have.  We can not let down, they will come out hard, fast, and chippy.  We must win every ball, talk, and possess in order to walk away with a W.  They did exactly what we said they would and we failed to do what we needed to do.  The game got out of control, it got to the point where we were afraid to even go to the ball.  We give up the first goal just 6 minutes into the half off of an attempt to clear the ball that bounces off of them and they are there to carry it in.  Their second goal comes 6 minutes later when there is an all out war in the box with the ball bouncing all over the place.  Mark Richwine manages to get a hand on the ball but is not able to pull it in.  They follow through, hit the ball and Mark winds up with an injured shoulder.  We don't take him out and he manages to play through the pain and we are now tied 2-2.  At this point Harlan is winning control of the game, beating us to the ball and taking the ball away whenever we do have it.  It turns into a rough battle from here and the cards start flying.  Within minutes of each other we get two yellow cards on two of our captains.  Then with 17 minutes left in the game they put in their third goal, which manages to be the winning goal.  From here it is all them, we get two more yellows cards, and one red card by the end of the game.  We have now seen both sides of controlling emotions, at Creston we did a great job, today we lost it.  It was a very tough loss to have to take especially when you play so well in the first half.  It is not going to get any easier as we will travel up to Iowa Western soccer complex on Monday to play our first city team match against St Albert.  It will be a real battle and should be a great game.  Please join us on Monday at Iowa Western at 4:30pm for the JV match first.

The JV game was a fun one to watch as well as we moved a few Varsity players down to help out and welcomed to the team Roberto Gaytan, Jordan Higgins, and Shawn Underwood.  Shawn comes back strong by scoring the first goal of his season early into the game.  From there it becomes a defensive battle on both sides and everyone plays their hearts out.  The second half we pulled the varsity players as they are only entitled to 3 halves in one day and play the second half with no subs again.  They gave all they had to give and left it all on the field.  We ran out of gas and with 2 minutes left in the game Harlan is able to punch in the game winning goal and we lose 1-2.  It was a tough loss but on the bright side we are continuing to get all the playing time we can for them.  They give me what they can and I can not ask for more, I am proud of everyone of them, GREAT job today JV.  Let's be ready on Monday and pick up a city JV win.

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 2009 Varsity Squad & Stats and 2009 Junior Varsity Squad & Stats pages to see our running season stats. Check back again for more comments.