TroopOut 2016

Game 1: at ODAC (2-2)

Well, TroopOut went low key this year as St. James hosted it for the first time.  And the weather just would not cooperate as we set through several delays, finally with the game ending 33 minutes early. Shortly there after the rain came down seriously, and for quite a while.

During the match itself, St. James got on the board fairly early with a PK.  We were called for holding I was told (maybe pushing after watching it a few times).  But we responded less than a minute later earning a corner.  We ran 2-man well with Ewert finishing on a second or third touch with a nice headball.

Honestly, we fouled too much, and they fouled too much.  I am sure the excitement of the first match along with the narrowness of the field contributed to that, but still; we need to possess better. We did spring our forward 4-5 times for one-on-one breaks with the keeper, but did not finish.

St. James scored a go-ahead goal off another deadball later in the first half. As Hammons will tell you, early matches are all about deadballs and defense, and honestly that pretty much summarized the match. We struggled with our shape in the back all match.  BWhite did name Reid Howard the BWhite Player of the Match.  He made up for so many of our defensive mistakes with his ability to close down players in zones other than his own, etc.  He played right back and centerback, staying in the whole match.

We did get almost 7 minutes played in the second half, and we were able to cash another deadball to at least claim a tie.  It was a first match; it wasn't particularly pretty with the weather reeking some havoc with a lot of the planned event.  

We did have a neat opening walk with some younger soccer players with a nice tribute to some of our connected military from both schools just before that.  With the tie we did not get to have a presentation of the Clevinger/Cobb trophy.  Seeing both of those families back is always a special treat.

STATS: 

Saints:  Shots:    Corners: 2 (Whigham 2)

25:51 Ewert (Gabriel and Whigham run 2-man with Curt driving ball to mid-post for Sketer header coming off them before Ewert heads it in: nice execution)

2nd Half: (7 minutes) Shots:  Corner: 1 (Gasparovich)

36:01 Gasparovich (Wherry bends the left-footed deadball in with Sketers competing with the keeper for the ball before Gaspo knocks it in.) 


SJA:  First Half:  Shots    Corners:

26:48 Schafer (we are called for a hold/push? in the box)

14:14 Nguyen (Pretty good throw that gets flicked up but then we continue it to the middle of the Top of the 6-box leads to a pretty easy knock-in. I think we get the assist.)

Second Half: Shots: 0 Corners: 0

2016 Blue Gold

Game 0
Vs. JV (2-0 after only a half as thunderstorms began appearing)

Well, we created chances, and that is a positive. We had some trouble finishing and framing, however. 

In fact, we created 11 first-half corners.  I did think both Kelly and Mogran made some nice saves for the JV lineup.

We played exclusively in the diamond tonight to take a look at that, and I did think we were more explosive. And we offered up zilch to the JV offensively, and we know how many chances they had in last Friday's scrimmage: quite a few.

We will need to finish those easy ones Friday night at St. James.



Stoecklein: (Neely stops the clear, and that leads to Wirt's shot that Parker rebounds)

Gabriel: (very encouraging goal with Ewert taking it down to the baseline from the right back position, and the new kid on the block, Ricardo, dummying the ball on the front post.)