Coach's Comments

2003 Titans

5/12/03 - Harlan
What a perfect night for soccer. No wind, upper 60's, and no rain. We traveled to Harlan tonight for what turned out to be typical Harlan/LC soccer game. The cardiac kids do it again. My hair is getting gray and Jer's chest was starting to hurt. Tonight we aged about 10 years in a matter of about 40 minutes. Pat Powers starts the scoring on an assist from Jesse Smith. Later Josh Probst hammers it away from about 25 yards out. They tie it up at 2 to 2 as Toole comes out on a one on one and makes the stop but doesn't hold on to the ball. Everyone stands around and watchs Toole try to get to the ball and Harlan picks up the lose ball and put it in the goal. Just before the half Jesse Smith takes the throw in, it bounces around and Keith Damgaard lays the wood to it and drives it home. We go into the half 3-2. They come out with fire in their eyes and tie it up at 3 within the first 5 minutes. We didn't really play all that bad we just are not finishing. Too many balls pass by the front of the goal and no one is there. We are looking for someone to step up and take control. We wind up playing to the end of two overtimes and no one puts it away. We go to a shoot out and it's all on the line. Pablo Navarete in his first Varsity game of the year buries the first shot and we are on our way. They miss then we miss as Josh Probst goes high. They make their second shot and we are tied at 1 after two shooters. Next is Jesse Smith, steps it up knocks it home, They miss their next shot so it's up to Dan Gulden. He puts it in the back of the net nice and easy, cooler then the other side of the pillow. They send their next shot over the top with Toole's help and we are going home. We are lacking the killer instinct this year. A thought to ponder, other then one game every game has been decided by 1 goal, win or lose. That is fine line. It is a line that we need to cross before next weekend when we go into District play. Tomorrow we will welcome to our house cross town rival AL. We will need to bring our A game if we expect to win this one and keep our goals in tack. Zach Paulson played another great game at defense tonight and saved us more then once. Pablo Naverette played very well for starting his first Varsity game tonight. Pablo and Jesse laid some great crosses out there just waiting for some one to put it away. The end of the regular season is near and it is time to put up or shut up. It is nice to come home with two wins but we are waiting for this team to step up to the next level.

JV stepped up tonight and put another W in the right column. I told them before the game they only have three games left and it is up to them if they want to end it on an up note. Scott Versch logs another shut out tonight and is having a pretty good season over all. Defensively Dan Black, Adam Cooney, and Corey Lane played their hearts out. Over all in JV we stepped it up tonight and it was nice to win. Every one got in tonight and got some playing time. Keith Goetz played probably his best game all year tonight. He stayed calm and played his game rather then trying to do something he couldn't. He had an assist on the first goal of the night to Jeff Walters. It was a nice combination and a nice finish. The second goal came off a combnation of Ben Edwards sending it to the middle and Brad Stageman heads it to Andy Kiser who touchs it off his chest and redirects it into the net. Patience is golden, keep the train rolling. Overall JV played very well.

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 2003 Varsity Squad & Stats and 2003 Junior Varsity Squad & Stats pages to see our running season stats. Check back again for more comments.