Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Coming down the final stretch of the regular season, the Hopkins County Central boys’ soccer team played remarkably strong, and a district rematch with Henderson County on Monday night had some of the Storm players eager to earn a postseason win at Donley Field.
Central (4-13-2) allowed just one goal in the game’s first 19 minutes, but once the Storm fell behind 2-0, there was no recovery as the team’s intensity lacked the ability to overcome Henderson (12-4-1) and they lost 10-0.
During the teams’ regular season matchup on Aug. 21, Central trailed 1-0 at halftime before losing 6-0. The Storm hoped a similar effort from that game’s first half would help the team pull an upset.
“Some of them thought, ‘OK, we can play with them,’ but they thought because we did last time we just automatically would, (like) it’s their God-given right to be able to play with them,” co-coach Charlie Chinn said. “We just didn’t play with the same effort we did as last time.”
The Storm allowed the game’s first goal just three minutes in, but the team’s defense buckled down for the next 16 minutes to hold the Colonels’ advantage at a mere 1-0.
“We were just trying to contain them,” senior defender Kristian Rowland said. “They move the ball really well. They know how to control it... They were kind of attacking a lot.
“We were trying to stay close to our man, not kind of back up. We were marking off on corners, that’s all we could really do.”
Henderson’s fleet-footed attack finally broke through again with 21:22 left in the first half when Jordan Gregory scored his second goal. The goal seemed to open the flood gates for the Colonels.
“Once it got nasty, it got nasty in a hurry,” Chinn said.
During the game’s next 20 minutes, Henderson scored six more times to take an 8-0 lead into halftime.
It took less than five minutes into the second half for the Colonels to score twice more and end the game early.
Storm senior Cody Heady expressed his frustration after the game regarding the offense’s attempt to manufacture goals.
“One (run) down here, they pushed me to the edge, they knew how to play the game,” he said.
Heady appeared to have a breakaway opportunity, but Henderson’s speed on defense prevented him from running past or attempting a cross.
“They beat us to the ball,” Heady said. “They passed well and they knew where each other were and we just couldn’t get the ball to move how we wanted it. We would have it where they would get down on our end for a while, we would get the ball, yet we wouldn’t have players up here to move it down the field.”
Rowland said the opposition’s ability to make crisp passes made it difficult on the Storm defense to keep up.
Senior defender Will Miller also said lack of communication played into Central’s downfall.
“They talk more than we do,” he said. “We didn’t talk as an offense today. We just held onto the ball too long and didn’t try to pass.”
After the game, Rowland spoke on behalf of all the team’s seniors.
“You’re kind of sad,” he said. “You wish you could go back and change a few things, go back and redo some things you didn’t do well, but overall I’m happy. I had a couple good years here, and I wish the best of luck to the rest of the team next year.”
No comments:
Post a Comment