by Jeff Wickerham
The Tri-Valley Boys Soccer 8-1-1 team (5-1 MVL) hosted a non-conference game vs. the Dover Tornadoes 4-6-1 on Saturday, September 23 at Kenny Wolford Park.
To kick off the festivities, the JV squads played first and the Scotties dominated from start to finish, winning the match 6-0 and keeping their undefeated season in tack. Sophomore Ty Young was the leading scorer with 3 goals, followed by Freshmen Lewis Mozena with 2 and Rylee Winters with 1. Young and Winters also had an assist, along with Sophomore Blake Spencer and Juniors Chris Garbrandt and keeper Lincoln Rhodes.
The Varsity match kicked off about 12:00 on Saturday and it was a Tornado filled first half. Dover scored goals in the 6th minutes, 16th minute, 26th minute and 28th minute, putting the score at 4-0. As the halftime buzzer sounded and the team came over to the bench, Coach Keith Laughlin had the boys walk to the corner flag, so they could be in the shade. His halftime talk focused on picking up the intensity, making sure there was communication, and marking up. Sophomore Keeper Owen Harney had a busy half, making 10 saves.
The second half went scoreless for the first 30 minutes, thanks to Harney’s 6 saves and a much better effort by the Scotties. During this time, Harney was injured and Junior Lincoln Rhodes came in, relieving him him goal and making 4 saves in the half.
At 72 minutes, Junior Yuvi Bastola was driving towards goal and had nowhere to go. He lifted the ball over the Dover keeper and Sophomore Cris Carpenter put his head on it, giving the Scotties it’s first goal of the match. 4-1 Dover.
1 minute later, Dover added it’s 5th goal, putting the score at 5-1, which was the final score.
Next up for Tri-Valley 8-2-1 (5-1 MVL), they will host the River View Black Bears 11-2 (7-0 MVL). This will be an MVL showdown, with the #1 and #2 teams in the league. JV kicks off at 5:30, with the Varsity to follow on Tuesday, September 26.
Today, Tri-Valley played its most underwhelming game of the season against the Tornadoes. This is a chance to learn and grow for the entire team. To take this loss and apply lessons they learned. To focus not on what went wrong, but focus on what they can do to improve. To play the game of soccer they know how to play.
#rentsdue
