Game 18: Regional Final vs. Seaman at STA

Region 1 Final vs. Topeka Seaman (2-1)

We pretty much ran into a good, physical team without our A game. That put the game in jeopardy as we were knotted 1-1 in the middle of the second half. 

We had cashed a deadball (Geist to Kutey!) and they had cashed a deadball. Lasse reentered the match, and somehow, as only Lasse can do, he hit some clever shot from the corner that warped in that the keeper saved into the corner kick that ended up winning us the match. Heying bent a great ball into Bartlett for the headball goal. Great goal. 

BWhite recognized Matthew Holland as the the BWhite Player of the match, and he was very good. Pedro Arias had another solid match at center midfield as well. Honestly, he earned a PK that was not called, and he had found Lasse on a small-touch through ball where Lasse was a step offsides that would have been another goal. 

Overall, we were a half-step slow tonight, and that is everything in soccer. Seaman played us well. They lost to Mill Valley, our next opponent, so we better prepare to step it up some or we will be missing the final four. 

STATS:

First Half:  Saints: Shots: 4 (2).  Corners. 1 (Younger)

4:08. Kutey (Geist bends in the free kick for the head skimmer.)

Sea:  Shots: 3 (1) Corners: 0

Second Half:  Saints. Shots: 5 (3). Corners. 4 (Kutey, Nilsen, Geist, Heying)

21:35. Bartlett. (Heying bends corner to mid-post). 

Sea:  Shots:  4 (2). Corners. 0

24:26 Schafer (deadball to back post)

Boys' Soccer Claims its 23rd Regional Title, 14th straight!

Game 17: Region 1: Semi-finals vs. St. James

28 October vs. St. James for 3rd time in Regional Semi-final (4-0)

This was a battle for the first half. Stats were virtually equal with us cashing one of our two corners the only real difference. The fact we only had 2 corners says a lot about how the half went. 

Second half we did have more bounce. We scored 3 but it easily could have been 6 or 7. Lasse's (The BWhite Player of the Game) second goal just changed the level of St. James play. Most of the wind exited their sails, and we really took the match over. 

We would also give a huge shoutout to Tyler Stoecklein who really was part of 3 of the 4 goals. He kept getting the ball forward in a way that put us in goal-scoring situations. Well done.

And how can we not recognize are own personal St. James weapon, Kevin Feuerborn who has scored in virtually every St. James match (5) during his high school career. 

We got all 22 guys in for pretty good minutes with little drop off. Pedro might earn a Coach Brown Red Badge of Courage award, as not only did he break his nose but he reentered the game to play with it broken. 

I will guarantee you that no other 1-2-3-4 seed had as good a team to play as we did. St. James plays very good soccer. I told Coach Enna that our match really should be the State Quarterfinal match this year. 

We now move to a Region 1 Final Thursday right here against Topeka Seaman. 

Stats:  First Half:

Saints. Shots. 8 (1). Corners. 2. (Stoecklein. Kutey)

18:06. Nilsen. (Johnston bends kick in off keeper for half volley)

Thunder. Shots: 5 (1) Corners. 1

Second Half:

Saints. Shots: 11 (4). Corners. 4. (Johnston, Younger, Feuerborn, Gabriel)

28:40 Nilsen (Bartlett pushes it forward)

9:25 Stoecklein (Younger chips it forward

8:59 Feuerborn (Gammill t's it)

Thunder:  Shots. 1 (1) Corners. 0. 

Game 16: BV Southwest

16 October on Senior Night vs. BV Southwest (2-1 2OT)

We had so much fun Tuesday night we thought we might as well do it again. And the match stayed pretty parallel to that Rural game. SW had 1 shot on goal the entire night, but they did score with it. 

We generated something like 24 shots with 12 on goal. We created corner after corner and throw-in after throw-in (and most were dangerous). We did finally score the game winner on a corner.  In fact even or PK came off a Heying corner. We did score once nicely from the field on an inverted T-ball from Johnston to Younger but that was called offsides. (check it out).

Southwest is a very well organized team, well coached, so it is not easy to score on them, but our set pieces did present several pretty legit opportunities. 

BWhite named Blake Heying the BWhite Player of the match. He served up several nice corners, including the game winner. He also was solid on defense throughout the evening. Pedro gets a big shoutout as well as he gave Danny, who did not have much leg left from Tuesday, some rest tonight in the middle. 

We definitely think we will see Southwest again, probably in the state finals. They have a nice squad. 

The real shoutout goes to all of the underclass families that help create this great senior night. Mrs. Johnson headed it up, but I know the Coles created that great slide show, and Mrs. Gabriel helped with all of the food setup. I know I am missing a lot more names here as well. Mrs. Gress took 1200 (and that is not hyperbole, that is just Mrs. Gress, (thank you)) pictures of the event, so I am sure we can spot the culprits in those. 

We end regular season 14-2. What a nice campaign. Now it is off awhile and on to bigger things like defending the ship. 

BTW: Jay Johnston just picked up the hat for Golden Goals—that's 3 sudden victory goals this season. That is just crazy. That's Jay Johnston.

STATS:  First Half: Saints. Shots: 8 (4) Corners: 3 (Velasco, Heying, Johnston)

TWolves:  Shots: 2 (0) Corners. 0

Second Half and OT. Saints: 16 (7) Corners: 3 (Bartlett 2, Kutey, Younger)

23:51 Brown PK (Arias taken down in box)

0:46 2OT Johnston (Heying bends in the corner)

TWolves: Shots: 4 (1). Corners: 2

5:58 Weaver (dribble through)

The Senior March.

Game 15: Bring Washburn Rural to Town

14 October 2014 Washburn Rural at STA (2-1 2OT'S)

Well you have to think Washburn Rural will play BV Northwest for the state title next month. Rural arrived as a 1-loss team (only to Chaminade the #1 team in the region) a Top 15 team in the country who just a week ago was ranked #7 in the US.

And they are very good, with some special players to dot the field with as well. But honestly, I thought we put together our best match of the year.  We outshot a big, physical team who closed space so quickly by a margin of 26 to 6. Now granted 3 or 4 or those shots were pretty dangerous, but quite a few of our 26 shots (only 8 on goal, though) were dangerous.

Luke Kutey was a man among boys out there just owning the right baseline as he just blew by their left back and their central defender time and time again. In fact he did play the game-winning cross as well as dummy the tying cross from Geist. Luke was very aggressive with his shot tonight, launching several near-misses.

And Geist just battled all match in the center of the field besides making the overlap to the outside to cross that game-tying ball. BWhite named Danny and Luke as the Co-BWhite Players of the Match. 

But as I suggested early this was a total team win against one of the best teams in the country and one of the two or three 6A favorites.  It was just a great win. We thought Rural was great defensively, in goal and throughout the back line.  Our first corner of the second half became a Bartlett smoke-job just inside the front post, but Rural had the post covered and the kid made a very nice clear.

The first 80 minutes ended in thrilling fashion with us running a corner kick as time expired. We have been working on doing a better job in our back-on situations, and we did well here. The game could have ended with the buzzer going off. (Check it out!)

And how about Golden-Goal Jay Johnston for yet another extra-time victory. He actually kept his shirt on through the entire celebration, yet still got yellow-carded as he just had to salute Schermoly.

STATS: First Half:  Saints: Shots: 9 (0) Corners: 5 (Nilsen 2, Kutey, Johnston, Bartlett)

Junior Blues: Shots: 1 (1) Corners: 1

24:40 Halsey (Long throw gets mis-cleared coming back towards the middle of the goal)

Second Half/Overtime: Saints: Shots: 17 (8) 9 (4); 7 (3) 1 (1) Corners: 2 (Johnston, Kutey)

35:35 Bartlett (Geist t-ball through the Kutey dummy)

6:30 2 OT Johnston (Kutey t-ball dummied by Bartlett)

Junior Blues: Second Half/Overtime: 5 (2); 2 (1); 1 (1) Corners: 2

Game 14: St. James Part 2

9 October At STA vs. St. James for one half (2-0)

Well, both St. James and we lost a game at the Gateway Classic, so I really appreciated Coach Enna being willing to play once again so that we could both get all of our 16 matches in.

The weather did not look good all day. We did move the match up an hour, and if we wouldn't have done that we wouldn't have played at all. We did get a half in to make the match official. But St. James probably would have liked to play another half.

We got one early on our throw-in play that featured a Bartlett bicycle back across the box for a fierce Stoecklein volley. I am not sure if we could ever duplicate that one. Tyler also nicely reversed the ball through Arias who delivered a ball right out in front of Feuerborn that led him to goal. 

BWhite named Tyler Stoecklein as the BWhite player of the match. Tyler played well both at center midfield and at outside midfield in this one. B also offered up a shoutout for Pedro.

We pretty much out-statisticed them, creating some very nice goal-scoring opportunities. But St. James is a scrappy team who will always be alive in a match.  Our defense did a nice job of offering them very few opportunities.

STATS: Saints: Shots: 13 (6) Corners: 4 (Kutey 2, Johnston, Feuerborn)

30:46 Stoecklein (Kutey heaves long for a Bartlett bike across)

10:56 Feuerborn (Arias continues the ball wide and forward)

Thunder: Shots: 2 (1) Corners: 0

Game 13: Back in KC At Blue Valley

7 October vs. Blue Valley at BV West (2-1)

This one just did not feel good with us giving up the midfield-defensive-breakdown goal at the end of the match. But we pretty much looked similar to the way we did in St. Louis with solid defensive all match, but with little offensive prowess for most of the match.

We scored only on a PK and a nice long deadball. Our flow of play is not creating enough shots or corners.  To attack the baseline, we continually have to bring Jay out of the back. Lasse was out ill tonight, and he has been providing some scoring punch, so maybe that had something to do with it, but we have a lot of veteran guys who know how we like to attack. We expect better.

We did get a nice finish from Kutey off Johnston's driven long deadball, and Bartlett earned us yet another corner off Luke's long throw-in.

And as I said earlier, defensively we were solid until our midfield intensity on defensive went south at the end of the match. But Tyler and Danny were not in the match, two guys who were just lights out defensively at the midfield in St. Louis. They just do not allow any space even to think about getting a shot off.

BWhite rewarded Nick D'Adamo as the Player of the Match. Honestly, Nick has had several very good matches in a row since he has taken over at centerback. And no, he was not in the match when we gave up the goal.  

The ref reminded Derek of a seldom-seen call early in the match. Derek set the ball down in the box, adjusted his shoe, then picked the ball up again. No. Not legal. To his credit, Derek made a great save of the indirect kick from the 14—a scary moment. (To our team's discredit, we did not react to the save and play defense after it. BV had an easy finish after the save, but missed it.)

This match puts us 11-2, 5-1 in the EKL.  

We have St. James on Thursday.

STATS:

First Half: Saints: Shots: 8 (3) Corners: 3 (Johnston 2, Kutey)

7:08 Kutey (Jay drives the deadball to Kutey's head)

Tigers: Shots: 3 (1) Corners: 1

Second Half: Shots: 6 (2) Corners: 2 (Skev, Holland)

39:15 Brown (Bartlett taken down in the box)

Tigers: Shots: 5 (1) Corners: 2

3:27 Lesko (receives the up ball, touches it by one center mid and fires from the 18)

Gateway Classic: Bracket Championship

4 October vs. Peoria Notre Dame at CBC (1-0 2OT)

We brought home our 3rd Bracket Title from the Gateway Classic, but it took a little extra time. 

We were superb defensively all game, offering few opportunities at all to ND. BWhite named Matthew Brown and Matthew Holland the Co BWhite Players of the Game. But Engel and his defense had quite a tournament overall, giving up no goals and few opportunities.

Matthew Holland was named to MVP for our bracket.

And B gave a huge shoutout to what really was most of our offense for the entire match, Jay Johnston. (And he was only at forward for perhaps 25 minutes.) But his 35 yard rocket ended the match just into the second overtime. 

It was a great weekend, eating on the hill Friday night, bringing the Royals home twice, and then claiming the title before heading home today. 

I know not everyone got a lot of minutes, but the bench was positive throughout the trip. 

Stats: First Half:  Saints. Shots. 7 (4) Corners. 3 (Nilsen, Heying, Johnston)

PND. Shots. 1 (1). Corners: 1. 

Second Half. Saints. Shots. 6 (5). Corners. 2 (Johnston. Geist). 

PND. Shots. 2 (0). Corners. 0

Overtime. Saints. Shots 6 (3). Corners 0

9:14 2OT Johnston (Younger layoff)

PND. Shors. 0. 

Bracket Champions for 2014, giving up zero goals

Semi-Finals of Gateway Classic

3 October vs. Quincy at CBC in Gateway Classic

How are we in the semi-finals of the Gateway Classic in our first game? Well, we had some lightning; we had some coin flips. And so.

Today, we had our second meeting all time with Quincy, one of the better soccer programs in Illinois. In fact, early this year the held the 14th slot in the Top Drawer Top 50 poll. Even then their defense drew most of their praise. And they are very good defensively. We were held to a season-low 7 shots for the game. We had one shot only in the first half when we had the wind.

But the Norwegian Bandit did ring one of those show-stopping shots up early in the second half. And then we executed a long deadball, running Stoecklein off the keeper and back on to finish just a great head-flick from Seth Castinado.

As BWhite, Hamms and I discussed the match just before BWhite named his BWhite Player of the Match, we all said almost simultaneously who played badly today. Not really anyone. BWhite named Tyler Stoecklein who has just improved so much defensively in the middle of the field and who just had a great deadball finish to lock up the match.  But several could have nabbed the honor. B also offered a big shoutout to Danny Geist. 

We will play for the bracket title tomorrow, taking oN Peoria Notre Dame, another opponent from a few years ago. Should be a great way to end the weekend.

STATS:  First Half: Saints: Shots: 1 (0) Corners: 2 (Geist Johnson)

Quincy: Shots: 1 (0) Corners: 1

Second Half: Saints: Shots: 6 (3) Corners: 1 (Castinado)

30:12 Nilsen (Younger)

21:52 Stoecklein (Castinado redirects the long chip)

Quincy: Shots: 2 (1) Corners: 1