State Quarter Finals

Game 19: (13-3-3)
3 November at HOME vs. Mill Valley (1-0)


We started our two-game replay tour tonight as we took on Mill Valley who we played early in the season (the night of the Chiefs Home Opener) in a good match that ended 2-0, us. Mill Valley has some nice wins this season like its win over # 2-in-the-State, Olathe West. But that tour took a detour when Bishop Carroll was upset tonight by Andover Central.


It took forever to score, and we probably scored in the least likely way. The Mill Valley keeper played well all night except that one late second-half play on the corner kick. We were attacking all night earning corner after corner. All of our free kicks were pretty good chances. As I said, their keeper played very well. 



Our backline was phenomenal again. There were very few even shots, let alone good chances. Nick Garcia came in early in the second half, allowing Mitchell to move upfield. I thought from that point on we spent almost all of the time on our side of the field. 

One of the reasons we didn’t cash much was not only the good keeper play, but the whole Mill Valley squad closed space so quickly and effectively. This was a battle. 

So, we have returned to the final four. The State website shows us playing Shawnee Heights who is part of our side of the bracket. Normally that is not possible as East has to play West first round. But obviously, COVID-19 has changed the seeding format. We will stay with the East for the semis.



B interviews Mitchell, Caden, Konnesky, and Nick Garcia after the match—his Men of the Match. Check it out. 

Carter Diggs picked up his 13th shutout, lowering his goals against to a historical .590. Zayveon, Max, Mitchell, and Muck, with a dash of Nick Garcia—you guys have been fabulous all year!

I still hear Hamms' last locker room claim echoing to the boys: "deadballs and defense." That's what wins the postseason matches.

HALO broadcasted, yet another one of our games (we have been blessed), and they do such a great job. Tonight LaBella teamed with Gabe Mohacsi, and they did a great job as they continually pointed out the strong keeper play of Mill Valley before noting that one exception. Check this keeper play out against Liam Ryan. Here. The boys broke down so many of our builds nicely as well. Great Broadcast!

Survive and Advance. 


STATS:

First Half:

Saints: Shots: 11 (4) Corners: 7. (Young 2, White, Kitts 3, Consuegra)

Jags: Shots:2 (2)

Second Half:  Shots: 8 (4). Corners: 7 (White 3, Kitts, Russell, Farrar 2)

8:52 Konnesky (Eames heads it in back before the ball skips back out to our second trash position where Luke does his job of putting the ball back into a dangerous position inside the box where Eames now is back in the box to charge it—well, that bounce gets over the keeper)


Second Half: Shots: 3 (2) Corners: 1




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EKL 2020

  EKL Wins Losses Ties Blue Valley West             5              0         2 0.857 Blue Valley Northwest             5              1          1 0.786 Blue Valley Southwest 5 2 0 0.714 Saint Thomas Aquinas 3             3          1 0.500 Blue Valley              3             3          1 0.500 Bishop Miege              1             4          2 0.286 St. James Academy              1             5          1 0.214 Blue Valley North               1             6           0 0.143 EKL Goalie of  Year Colin Welsh BVW EKL Forward of Year Victor Lopez BM EKL Midfielder of Year Will Vancrum BVNW EKL Defender of Year Remy Wood BVW EKL Coach of Year Brian Pollack BVNW EKL Ass. Co-Coaches of Year Michelle Pothoven BVNW EKL Ref of Year Nathan Colling First Team First Last Year Position School Blake Barrick Jr Offense BVW Kaden Cripe Jr. Defender BVW Mitchell Farrar Sr defender STA Luke Happer SR D SJA Baha Ibrahim So Midfield BVSW Aidan Knauth Sr. Midfield BVNW Victor Lopez JR FWD BM Keagan
Read more

Saints Travel to Topeka

Image
Game 10 (7-2-1) 1 October at Washburn Rural (1-1 2 OT’s) We had a tall task tonight traveling to a very good Rural team with 4 key players (Farrar, Konnesky, Young, and Morrisette) in the infirmary.  And we came out a little tentatively, giving up a goal again in the opening minutes. But something special happened tonight as we responded with a vengeance. We were a different team for the next 90 minutes. I could not be prouder of the boys.  And we still had to defend a ton of long throws and way more corners than we like. But we attacked like crazy people creating many good scoring opportunities. Rural’s keeper made 3 saves on the goal line. We banged a couple of posts as well.  I think we could have named umpteen Men of the Match, but 3 guys do deserve special mention. Drew Welch had to play 100 minutes at the “6” tonight. And he had a special game, winning ball after ball, shutting down dribbler after dribbler.  Barrett Kitts played a fine, fine 10 tonight. We found his feet and he m
Read more

Defense Downs Offense

Image
Game 0 22 August 2020 in a Blue vs. White pre-Blue-Gold Match (0-2) Honestly, this team has been one of the more active during this pandemic. We won the Great Plains 6 v 6 league, playing throughout July, captured a first and a third in two Brian White Classics, losing only one match on a shootout. And we have done most all of this wearing our masks, bringing our own water bottles and balls, social distancing--just trying to do everything we possibly can to get to play some real high school matches this season. So, we have shown we were excited to get things started this week.  So, we finished off tryout week (Congratulations to Liam Ryan, Barrett Kitts, Jacob Muckerman and Zayveon Russell for being named Josh Lents Tryout Award Winners for their grade) Saturday with a shortened scrimmage featuring our varsity and extended varsity in a scrimmage which really pitted the defense against the offense. The defense prevailed 2-0 in a pretty well-played match from both sides. When I asked Bar
Read more