unday, October 05, 2008
In soccer, much like football, defense wins championships, and Saturday morning the Madisonville-North Hopkins boys’ soccer team played host to one of state’s top defenses, but it was the Maroons who rose to the occasion and came away with a 1-0 shutout of Tates Creek at Donley Field.
North midfielder Micah Crowell scored the game’s lone goal while goalkeeper JD Lester and the Maroon defense shut down the Commodores (7-6-3) in the first game of the 12th-annual East-West Donley Classic.
“I was real impressed by their team,” North coach John Tichenor said. “They came at us hard several times and we were able to fend them off. JD played excellent in goalkeeping, made some big plays on tough balls that were hit at him. He was able to make tough plays and respond.”
Crowell’s goal, which ultimately proved to be the game-winner, came with 16:58 left in the first half after a throw-in by Maarten Adams.
The goal might not have been possible if for assistant coach Marty Cline’s urging to allow Adams, a senior defender, to make the throw.
“I told Maarten to leave it and then coach Cline said, ‘No coach, let him take it, he can take, he can throw it,’ ” Tichenor said. “He did throw it in well. It got batted down and (Crowell) hammered it home. The keeper didn’t have a chance. It’s a heads-up play by Micah. He was Johnny-on-the-spot there.”
Crowell said the goal came after he endured some unexpected pain.
“It was a cross-in and it deflected off somebody and him me right in the face, and it bounced right in front of me and I just buried it with my left foot,” he said. “I definitely didn’t think that was going to be the only goal of the game. I would have felt a whole lot safer if we had at least one more goal.”
Although the Maroons would not have turned down an insurance goal, North did not need one as Lester and the defense methodically wrapped up the team’s fifth shutout of the season.
Lester said he could not have done it though without his fellow defenders, led by co-captain John Arnold.
“They’re a really good team,” Lester said. “Our defense, John especially. He keeps his drop and cleans up anything I don’t have.”
Midfielder Trevor Gillespie made a clutch stop on defense as well to bail out Lester. With 28 minutes left in the game Lester went to the ground in an attempt to block a shot. The ball trickled away and with Lester still on the ground, Gillespie stepped in to kick a shot attempt away.
Lester made many aggressive plays throughout the game, confronting Commodore attackers as they came toward the goal.
“You just have to cut away your angle,” Lester said. “If I’m standing on my line, they have a really big target. You just have to come out and clear it.”
Tichenor noted the outstanding play of defender Logan Whitfield also.
“He’s a rock back there and he understands the position,” Tichenor said. “His job is to man-mark. He always gets the other team’s best player and we always have the saying, ‘You know you have to stay with him. You need to know what he had for lunch today. You need to be that close.’”
As the second half winded down and it appeared Crowell’s goal might stand as the only of the game, Tichenor employed a different strategy.
“We quit committing so many players forward,” Tichenor said. “It’s a catch-22. Sometimes you quit committing players forward and you’re back on your heels defending... The more numbers you have behind the ball, the harder it is for them to penetrate and attack. I think our guys did that.”
The defense held and North came away victorious to begin the day, outshining the Tates Creek defenders, who are tied for 15th-best in the state with 1.3 goals allowed per game.
“They go all out,” Crowell said of the Commodore defense. “When the ball is in the air they go all out. They’re not worried about getting hurt.”
Our defense was very strong this game and they really helped us win the match.”
Although North’s offense amounted just a single goal, Tichenor said he’ll take any kind of win against a quality team like Tates Creek.
“That’s a big win against a good team,” he said. “That’s all we needed. A lot of times when you play a good teams, sometimes it just takes one. That’s all we needed to get the result.”
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