Coach's Comments

2002 Titans

5/07/02 - @AL (City Field)
What a win, a huge win for the Titans tonight considering how we played. Tonight was another one of those nights were we did not play well, were not at the top of our game, but we played when we needed it. Overall we were started the game looking like we were scared, a little fear in our eyes for some reason. They totally dominated the first half and we were watching the game. They scored first a little over 10 minutes into the game and it stayed there going into the half 1-0. I was not happy and I found it very had to believe that any of the Titans on the field were happy. It was time for a little chewing time again. We needed to pick up our heads, start talking, win the 50/50, and get the BALL to the corners. Bet you haven't heard me say that before have you. They may have backed off a little in the second half but they still mustered up several attacks on goal and kept on the pressure. We switched up half way through the second half and went to a 3-4-3 attack. It confused them and we we able to start winning the middle of the field. We put Daniel on top because they always had two people on him. That pulled two of them out of the middle and opened up Johsh Probst and Josh Grosvner to be to start placing the ball. I pulled Dan Gulden and put in Austin Croushorn to gain some speed on the left defensive side. Austin really stepped up when he was called upon tonight and he was the difference on the the outside the second half. I moved Josh Probst to the middle and put Keith Damgaard back to right defender. Keith played very well there and with Seth Jackson and Austin they managed to stop any type of attack they manage to muster toward the end. Seth really stepped it up a notch the second half.It was until the last 5 minutes of the game that we actually decided to play and get into the game. With 2:32 left in the game Daniel Knigge took a shot in front of the goal, it bounced off of a defender and Jimmy Johnston was right there to put in the rebound. Great goal at a great time. We are now tied and it stays that way to end regulation. Into OT we go. Let's just say that the hudles this time were just reversed from that at half time. This time the vocals were coming from their side while we were setting up our attack. Plan - 3 touch to the corner and cross. Ok coach let's do it. We got the ball to start the first OT. Touch the ball back, send it to the corner. They hit it out of bounds, Jesse takes the throw in. They win the ball in the front of the goal but while coming out Jimmy Johnston gets mugged and taken down by one of their defenders. The ref sees it right away, blows the whistle and stops the clock. He issues a yellow to AL which turns out to be the players second which turns it into a red. At the same time the foul was in the box and the ref calls a PK. Here we go, we are just 33 seconds into the OT and the game is on the line. Jimmy Johnston gets fouled so he takes the shot. Jimmy steps up to the ball, keeper goes left, Jimmy goes right and the game is over. Justin Toole with the of Mr Posty played another great game. We will go into the weekend looking to prepare ourselves for next week. We will have two possibly three games depending on how we play in the TJ Invitational on Saturday. The first game will be at 8:30am against Riverside followed by St. Alberts at 10:30. This will be two tough games and hopefully we learned something tonight and will be ready to play Saturday.

Great game and shut out tonight for Keeper Scott Versch. Scott started the JV game tonight and played all the way through to lock up his first shut out for the season. They have been playing well the past few games like they actually want to play and it is showing on the field and on the score board. John Koucerek scored the only goal of the game tonight as he marched basically three fourths of the field one on one with the defender and stayed with it all the way to finally put into the back of the net. Great goal and great effort by John. Defensively Dan Black, Bobby Durand, and Ben Edwards played extremely well and were rock solid. Austin Croushorn was playing stopper tonight and he played very well also. Austin was the differnece in the middle and winning the 50/50 balls. Austin was all over the field and was always around the ball. This too was a very big win for JV and they fought hard to earn it. Good job by everyone. One game left for the season and we are playing much much better, keep it up blue.

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.