Squires Edge Rival Wildcats In Soccer Action
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Anthony [email protected]
Unable to attend the game following a red card during Monday’s 2-1 victory over Oak Hill, McNeeley was out, but the Squires (9-1-1) did manage to get a 1-0 victory over the Wildcats (0-10).
“We got away with one today, even though I felt we really outplayed them and we should have had a few more (goals),” Manchester coach Dave McKee said.
Manchester did control much of the contest, getting 11 shots on goal to Whitko’s five, but it took a shot from 20 yards out by Ashton Bolinger to decide the game.
Settling the ball, Bolinger’s shot seemed harmless, but as Whitko’s junior goalkeeper Jacob Helton jumped to his left to catch the lobbed shot, the ball slipped through his grasp and bounced into the net with 14:30 remaining in the game.
“When you play for 80 minutes, every now and then one like that is going to slip in,” Whitko coach Jason Ehrman said. “That’s why you have to try to get one of your own, so that one slip doesn’t beat you.”
Helton posted 10 saves in the loss and his coach had some words of encouragement for him after the game.
“Last year, at one point, he had more saves than any other goalkeeper in the state,” Ehrman said of Helton. “He’s faced so many shots, it’s not even funny. There’s been so many games where it could have been 15-0 and he kept it 6-0, or it could have been 6-0 and he kept it 1-0. I told him, ‘If you play enough games and enough possessions, every now and then one of those is going to get by ya.’ It stinks that happened in that tight of a spot for him. I know it’s going to bother him, but hey, this is sports. You just shake it off and move forward.”
The loss was especially tough for the Wildcats, as they continue to search for win No. 1 on the season.
Despite the winless year, McKee had praise for the Wildcats, a team his Squires downed 1-0 at the Sept. 7 Manchester Invitational.
“I believe they had four or five shots on goal, and last time we played they had zero,” McKee said. “Whitko is a much-improved team. Not just over the course of this year, but over the years.”
Whitko did have a chance to at least draw a tie with four minutes remaining.
Following a Whitko corner kick, the Manchester defense failed to clear the ball, resulting in a large scrum in the front of the net.
“That was a scary six, seven seconds for me there,” McKee said. “I really thought it was going to be tied right there.”
The Squires did manage to get the ball out of their own end, and went on to post their fifth shutout of the season.
“We’ve given up six goals and this is our fifth shutout in 11 games,” McKee said about his team’s defense, which was without junior Cody Egner. “And two or three goals were own-goals, where our goalie was clearing it and hit our defender in the back and went in the goal.”
According to Ehrman, the Manchester defense doesn’t only prevent opposing goals, it creates them for the Squires’ offense.
“They’re not easy to score on for a reason,” he said. “They sit back and counter attack. They wait for you to screw up. That’s what I’ve been telling my guys all week, ‘If we don’t screw up and we make them beat us, it’s going to be hard for them because they don’t take chances.’ We sat back and kind of let things come to us. We played defense, like they did, playing conservative. I was hoping we’d be the ones to get that one goal in. It just didn’t happen.”
Instead, Whitko must look for its first victory Saturday at North Miami, and if his team continues to fix its mistakes, Ehrman sees good things coming.
“For us to be able to compete with (Manchester) from where we started is great,” he said.
The Squires are off over the weekend, getting back to action Tuesday at Lakeland Christian Academy.
MANCHESTER 1, WHITKO 0
M – Ashton Bolinger 66th min.
Shots – Manchester 18, Whitko 6; Shots on Goal – Manchester 11, Whitko 5; Saves – Manchester (Rainer Borgmann) 5, Whitko (Jacob Helton) 10; Fouls (Yellow Card) – Manchester 9 (Andreas Ulset), Whitko 8; Corner Kicks – Manchester 7, Whitko 3
Records: Manchester 9-1-1, Whitko 0-10[[In-content Ad]]
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Unable to attend the game following a red card during Monday’s 2-1 victory over Oak Hill, McNeeley was out, but the Squires (9-1-1) did manage to get a 1-0 victory over the Wildcats (0-10).
“We got away with one today, even though I felt we really outplayed them and we should have had a few more (goals),” Manchester coach Dave McKee said.
Manchester did control much of the contest, getting 11 shots on goal to Whitko’s five, but it took a shot from 20 yards out by Ashton Bolinger to decide the game.
Settling the ball, Bolinger’s shot seemed harmless, but as Whitko’s junior goalkeeper Jacob Helton jumped to his left to catch the lobbed shot, the ball slipped through his grasp and bounced into the net with 14:30 remaining in the game.
“When you play for 80 minutes, every now and then one like that is going to slip in,” Whitko coach Jason Ehrman said. “That’s why you have to try to get one of your own, so that one slip doesn’t beat you.”
Helton posted 10 saves in the loss and his coach had some words of encouragement for him after the game.
“Last year, at one point, he had more saves than any other goalkeeper in the state,” Ehrman said of Helton. “He’s faced so many shots, it’s not even funny. There’s been so many games where it could have been 15-0 and he kept it 6-0, or it could have been 6-0 and he kept it 1-0. I told him, ‘If you play enough games and enough possessions, every now and then one of those is going to get by ya.’ It stinks that happened in that tight of a spot for him. I know it’s going to bother him, but hey, this is sports. You just shake it off and move forward.”
The loss was especially tough for the Wildcats, as they continue to search for win No. 1 on the season.
Despite the winless year, McKee had praise for the Wildcats, a team his Squires downed 1-0 at the Sept. 7 Manchester Invitational.
“I believe they had four or five shots on goal, and last time we played they had zero,” McKee said. “Whitko is a much-improved team. Not just over the course of this year, but over the years.”
Whitko did have a chance to at least draw a tie with four minutes remaining.
Following a Whitko corner kick, the Manchester defense failed to clear the ball, resulting in a large scrum in the front of the net.
“That was a scary six, seven seconds for me there,” McKee said. “I really thought it was going to be tied right there.”
The Squires did manage to get the ball out of their own end, and went on to post their fifth shutout of the season.
“We’ve given up six goals and this is our fifth shutout in 11 games,” McKee said about his team’s defense, which was without junior Cody Egner. “And two or three goals were own-goals, where our goalie was clearing it and hit our defender in the back and went in the goal.”
According to Ehrman, the Manchester defense doesn’t only prevent opposing goals, it creates them for the Squires’ offense.
“They’re not easy to score on for a reason,” he said. “They sit back and counter attack. They wait for you to screw up. That’s what I’ve been telling my guys all week, ‘If we don’t screw up and we make them beat us, it’s going to be hard for them because they don’t take chances.’ We sat back and kind of let things come to us. We played defense, like they did, playing conservative. I was hoping we’d be the ones to get that one goal in. It just didn’t happen.”
Instead, Whitko must look for its first victory Saturday at North Miami, and if his team continues to fix its mistakes, Ehrman sees good things coming.
“For us to be able to compete with (Manchester) from where we started is great,” he said.
The Squires are off over the weekend, getting back to action Tuesday at Lakeland Christian Academy.
MANCHESTER 1, WHITKO 0
M – Ashton Bolinger 66th min.
Shots – Manchester 18, Whitko 6; Shots on Goal – Manchester 11, Whitko 5; Saves – Manchester (Rainer Borgmann) 5, Whitko (Jacob Helton) 10; Fouls (Yellow Card) – Manchester 9 (Andreas Ulset), Whitko 8; Corner Kicks – Manchester 7, Whitko 3
Records: Manchester 9-1-1, Whitko 0-10[[In-content Ad]]
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