Soccer teams falls short of OVAC win
A slow week on the schedule had the Silver Knight boys soccer team at Tyler Consolidated only playing one game last week, in the first round play-off game in the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference against Stubenville on Oct. 3. The Knights also played on Monday at home in a make up game from earlier in the season with Parkersburg Catholic.
Against the co-ed Catholic team, the Silver Knights took their time scoring goals in the 5- 0 win.
“It seemed like all we wanted to do was pass the ball, control the ball and possess the ball,” said Knight head coach, Scott Wall. “I know the guys had a good time, and I guess we were perfecting our passing skills, but man this was a frustrating game for me. I thought we should have taken more kicks on goal.”
Nevertheless, the Knights did play to win, actually taking 24 shots on goal, and making good on five of them.
Freshman Brandon Frye scored the first goal for the home team in the opening minutes of the game. Curtis Romine scored a goal and had one assist; Justin Cooper scored one; Spencer Kinnard kicked two into the opposing net. Aaron Estep and Skylar Kinnard each had one assist.
Jared Lantz had one save as goal keeper for the Silver.
“Obviously we worked on our footwork,” the coach said. “Which is pretty good anyway. We are able to pass the ball really well, but in the next couple of weeks we are not going to have the kind of time we had in this game. We’re going to have to work on quick and accurate passes.”
The win against Parkersburg Catholic put Tyler Consolidated at 10 wins for the season thus far.
“Eighty minutes of full out soccer,” is the way one fan described the play of the OVAC first round play-off game between Tyler Consolidated and Steubenville on Saturday. The Big Reds eventually took the 1-0 win in a hard fought, solid game.
“This was one of the cleanest games we’ve ever played in,” said Wall. “I mean there was good competition between our two teams and the game was very physical, but there was no tantrums, no mouthing off and stuff like that, just good clean soccer.”
“The last time we qualified for OVAC play and showed up for the game, we were intimidated, but not this time. The last time we doubted our ability and had ourselves beat mentally before we even played, this time we were prepared, we wanted the win and we knew we could pull it off. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for us the way we wanted it to and we lost, but certainly was not because of a lack of effort. Our kids played a great game.”
The only score in the game came immediately after a save in the net by the Knights goalie. The rebound kick hit the upper post of the net and fell to the net side, scoring for Stubenville.
The Knights out shot their competitors by taking 12 shots on goal to the Big Reds eight; Consolidated took six corner kicks, Stubenville, three; the Silver Knights had six free kicks, and the Reds took four.
“They had pretty decent defenders and were able to turn us away, but we were on our game,” the coach said.
Goal keeper for Tyler Consolidated, Skylar Kinnard had six saves in the game.
The Knights played at St. Marys on Tuesday and will play the final two games of their season at home. On Oct 13, the Silver will host St. Marys in a 5 p.m. game, and on Oct. 17 the varsity boys and varsity girls teams will host a double header on Burgbacher Field with opponents from Ravenswood.