Squire Kickers Still PerfectNORTH MANCHESTER – The Manchester Squires kept their season and conference records perfect Monday evening, doing so in impressive fashion against the visiting Maconaquah Braves.
Honoring their six senior players, as well as their managers and statisticians, at halftime, the 2A No. 9 Squires cruised to a 12-0 varsity boys soccer win over the Braves.
With it, Manchester improved to 14-0 overall and 5-0 in the Three Rivers Conference, and guaranteed itself at least a share of the league title.
The Squires close the regular season Wednesday with a trip to TRC foe North Miami.
The score was 4-0 in Manchester’s favor after 40 minutes of the 80-minute match, and the Squires punctuated it with eight more in the second half of their final home appearance.
“To me it’s unbelievable, because we started putting in the subs, and we’re still scoring,” said veteran Manchester coach Dave McKee.
“I think that’s our highest-scoring half of the season. I think against Peru we scored seven in each half.”
Senior Harley Kruschwitz led Manchester with four goals and three assists, while classmate Caleb Stout added three goals and an assist of his own.
Other Squires to score goals included junior Dyson Rosen, sophomores A.J. Fortman and Jackson Austin, and freshmen Michael Ortiz and Logan Bishir.
Kruschwitz, listed on Maxpreps.com as the nation’s leader in points - a stat that includes goals and assists - upped his season totals to 40 goals and 19 assists, while improving his career total to 99 goals.
Stout has 24 goals and 11 assists this season.
“It really can’t be put into words,” McKee, who bragged about all six of his seniors, said when asked what Kruschwitz and Stout have meant to the program.
“Irreplaceable. Even though we have great kids coming up, a great freshman class, great sophomore class, great 8th grade class, but are they Harley and Caleb?”
For all the praise there is to doll out to Manchester’s offensive prowess, the Squires’ defenders deserve just as much.
Manchester has outscored its five TRC opponents 44-0.
“That shows we have defense, not only our offense,” said McKee. “That’s our defense’s goal, not to give up a goal. We only have one more game left, at North Miami on Wednesday, and this clinches at least a share of the TRC tonight.”
MANCHESTER 12, MACONAQUAH 0
(Scoring)
M - Caleb Stout (Harley Krusche assist) 22nd min
M - Kruschwitz (A.J. Fortman) 26th min
M - Michael Ortiz (Kruschwitz) 31st min
M - Kruschwitz 33rd min
M - Fortman (Kruschwitz) 49th min
M - Stout (Justin Self) 52nd min
M - Jackson Austin (Hunter Klutz) 58th min
M - Kruschwitz (Self) 59th min
M - Kruschwitz (Klutz) 60th min
M - Dyson Rosen (Stout)
M - Stout goal 69th min
M - Logan Bishir (Hendrix) 73rd min
Records: Manchester 14-0 (5-0 TRC), Maconaquah 7-7-1 (3-3 TRC)
