5/22/09 - Denison -

A night for a big game and a big game it was.  Hawkeye 10 Monarchs from Denison come to our house.  Home game, Conference game, last regular season game for 7 seniors, and a chance to give Denison their first conference lost.  It is a perfect night for soccer, the weather is great, small breeze and 84 degrees.    We are expecting a high pressure game from Denison and in fact it is just the opposite.  Because they don't pressure we mark up.  We don't mark up because we aren't talking.  At the half way in the first half Colin Duffy takes the throw in.  We are yelling at him there is no off sides on a throw in.  Kyle Larkin is there and is one on one with the keeper and puts it across and back post for the goal.  We go up 1-0.  A little breakdown defensively, and a miss on what could have been an easy save, and they score with 7 minutes left in the half and tie it up going into the half.   We talk to them about the lack of communication.  Denison is standing back and giving us the opportunity but we are not taking advantage of it.  Step up, take control, talk and get a couple quick goals and you got this one.  14 minutes into the second half they call a foul on Denison so we set up for a kick from about 35 yards out.  We call a play and Nate Dreager lays the perfect ball into the middle about 6 yards in front of the net.  It completely catches Denison off guard and we have 3 guys there of which anyone of them could have scored.  Tyler Meleney is there to tap it into an open net and the easy goal.  We are up 2-1.  10 minutes later Nate Dreager is in the action again with a set play.  Nate sets the ball and sends it far post, this time Cristian Navarrete is there to put it away and put up up 3-1.  At this point it becomes scrappy as Denison now picks up on the attack.  We manage to have a super defensive battle and stand led by Ryan Cook and assisted by Colin Duffy, Jordan Higgins, and Chris Wenck.  The defense played a great 80 minutes tonight.  In fact everyone played a full game tonight and it was good to see as we move now to District play next week.  Good job tonight by Kyle Larkin, Nate Dreager picks up 2 assists and the team point lead.  We moved Tyler Meleney back up to the top tonight and he looked more back at home there.  Due to injury Nate Jones stepped in as the keeper tonight and other then one goal played a very good game and had 16 saves.  Great game Nate, hopefully the night off will help Mark Rickwine to be ready for Districts.  We start District play next week as we will be at home to play Des Moines East at 6:30pm on Tuesday night.  Please plan to join us Tuesday to cheer on your Titans. 

JV played their last game of the season.  Denison scores early just 7 minutes into the game.  We have a defensive breakdown and they put it away to go up 1-0.  We tie up the game 15 minutes later when Troy Mahood plays a through ball to Shawn Underwood.  Shawn is one on one with the keeper and beats him to the goal.  We are tied at 1.  We ride along pretty well then suddenly with 3 seconds left in the half Denison scores a cheap on and takes the lead at the half, 2-1.  We start out the second half with a quick goal just one minute in with it in fact going in off of them.  We are playing the ball around in the front of the goal and it rebounds off of Denison.  The last Titan to touch the ball was Jaden Brouse so he is awarded the goal.  We tie up the game at 2 but then we give up a quick goal 30 seconds later and Denison goes back up on top 3-2.  From there it is a defensive battle the rest of the half until 2:30 left in the game.  Zack Shea steps in and plays his first JV game of the season to help out.  He plays the ball over to Nolan Gillespie and he takes on the keeper to put it away.  We tie it up again and are looking at a tie for the last game of the season.  Then just like the last goal, 30 seconds later Denison does it again, they answer back and take the lead at 4-3.  Denison holds on and hands us a lose for the last game of the season and JV finishes the season at 1-6-2.  The first time at least as long as I can go back that JV finished the season with only one win.  We were young for sure this year and the biggest issue that we fought through was lack of numbers.  However regardless of the numbers they never quit, and were always ready to play a full game when we could get it worked out.  That is encouraging and is a character builder as well.  Stay active this year, join a team if you can, get as many touches as possible and we look forward to seeing you all back next year.

We also had some good news today for the program as we had a college signing two of our seniors.  Kyle Larkin and Nate Dreager signed today to play for Morningside.  Congratulations gentlemen and good luck with your careers at Morningside.  More to come on this story along with pictures. 

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.