SENIOR NIGHT!

Game 14: (8-6-0)
10 October vs. Blue Valley on Senior Night: 1-0 OT



Senior Night was quite a night from its presentation to our honoring John Whigham to the Soccer of it all.

Mrs. Befort headed up the event that began with a walk-in with flowers for moms and medals for dads and notes to both of them as Nick Dicarlo read each bio during their walkouts. 



We had Mrs. Gress there for pictures, and a special moment of silence for John Whigham and his family. With the boys breaking out their SripeOut uniforms again and Travis getting everyone a red wristband the Whigham tribute became quite special for us all.


And the game. Wow.

I know it was a 1-0 OT win, but we played some very very good soccer. We outshot the Tigers 15 shots on goal to 2. We did hit quite a few of those at the keeper, but he also made 5 or 6 nice saves. And Blue Valley is such a well organized team with a couple of special dudes in the middle of the field.

The coaches were just impressed with how we were able to break them down to create just some great chances.

We defended well all over the field. I thought the renewed efforts we have made to stay in shape defensively and to condense the field really paid some dividends tonight.

I also loved the play of our all-senior lineup that played a bit more than the first ten minutes of the match. They created 3 corners, almost scored twice, and left with a clean sheet.


And the goal came out of something we have worked on all year (our 3/4's press) and the most-on-fire player in the area right now, Liam Ryan. Muck and Janeway collapsed on their pass forward out of the back with Janeway dribbling quickly away to find Liam. Just a great finish.

We won our fifth straight match, setting up a nice match with Blue Valley West Thursday to close out our EKL season (we now stand 4-2-0).

If you have not seen the Halo Broadcast, you must—as we have such a polished and knowledgeable announcing duo in Benny LaBella and JP Mallouk. I can't imagine we have too many schools around the county who could offer up such a fine soccer broadcast.

Halo does a better job of catching the-goal-that-was-not that occurred around the 3-minute-left-in-the-game mark, and its obvious that the announcers feel that it might well have been a goal. Here is the VEO version—definitely not a very good view. Here. It is quite a t-ball from Liam that gives Muck a great opportunity back post. 

The center official is one of the best in town, and he had a good view, but he did take a look to the side official who also did not feel the ball crossed the line. So, we played on, continuing a very good high school soccer match.

And we had quite a reception afterwards with food and drinks and a Hunter Noravong video and creative displays that depicted each on of our ten seniors and a synopsis of their soccer life until now, complete with favorite quotes and pump-up songs. 




STATS:

First Half 

Saints: Shots: 11 (6) EG: 2 Corners: 5 (Reboulet 2, Vogt, Janeway 2)

Tigers: 4 (1) EG: 0 Corners:0

Second Half/OT: Saints: 13 (9) Corners: 2 (Janeway, Befort)

5:33 OT Ryan (Muck's tackle off the 3/4 press leads to a steal and a quick slide-out to Janeway who finds Liam for his now-famous turn-and-shoot.

Tigers: Shots: 3 (1) Corners: 2


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