1st XI Soccer report – June 10, 2015

June 10, 2015

ST PATRICK’S COLLEGE – 3 defeated DAMASCUS COLLEGE 0

GOALS Ben Hutchins, Jack Reinhardt, Josh De Voogel-

BEST Miles Baker, Dennis Heinke, Henry Wines, Brayden Baker, Ben Hutchins, Josh Lynch, Tom Lannen, James King

This was a game of two halves where we saw scintillating passing of the ball and total control over the game in the first half by St Patrick’s Seniors and in the second we saw a much more focussed opposition Damascus put us off our game and bluster their way to an even half of soccer. The result was as desired but left the observer somewhat bemused at our stumbling efforts to score in the second half.-

To be fair the lasting impression should be of the dominance of our centre player Miles Baker who was so far on top of the game early that we didn’t recognise the ability of their players until he was rested. His ability to make clean passes set up most of our opportunities to goal and his work tight in against the opposition to recover the ball for our advantage was impressive in the least. It was great leadership from our captain and set up the win.

Our backline was very strong with Damascus appearing to only have a couple of shots at goal for the whole of the match. Dennis Heinke was the reliable centre back and his coolness to either deliver passes forward to the wings or relieve the pressure back to a very reliable keeper in Henry Wines saw us past any dangers from their forward thrusts. Henry’s delivery to the flanks got us moving forward and his quick change to the other side of the pitch often saw futile running by their forwards.

The goals came after very sublime sets of passes mostly down the left wing with Ben Hutchins’ goal an example of tremendous pressure developed from fast passing between wings and centre players ending in a shot into the square allowing Ben to have a couple of shots before running it in. Jack Reinhardt’s was also after a build up from the centre of the pitch put him on the ball inside the box. Josh De Voogel scored after a number of frantic attacks on the goals led to another fast series of passes giving him an opportunity to score.

The second half saw the opposition gather a structure at their back and their line proved difficult to break with the offside trap being employed very well against our forwards.

Centre players Josh Lynch, Tom Lannen and James King were valuable contributors especially in the second half as they put pressure on Damascus as their centre players started to get more of the ball from their dominant backline players.

More photos from this game can be found at this link.