Mo-Kan Semis

Game 3: 30 March at 7:00 vs. Sion (0-2)

Well, plenty of adages held true tonight:  It is easier to be the hunter than the hunted. Enthusiasm makes a big difference. And on and on. . .

Sion came out with so much passion, and they were the aggressor in those first eleven minutes.  They just finished two very nice goals (yes, we did not maintain the shape or the philosophy of our defense, but hey, those were nice assists and nice goals.)

The rest of the first half consisted of a lot failed passes in the front third and a lot of balls up in the air by Sion and us, reinforcing the idea that we had two teams closing space quickly to deny multiple completions. In fact, the first half offered up 4 total shots and 2 total corners, both split evenly, our shots (both by Klanke), hardly dangerous.

I did think we were a little better in the second half, generating a couple of great corner kick opportunities. We did make a spurt when Romme went up top. But we never reached the possession level we are capable of; we did flash a couple of minutes here and there, yes, a few glimpses, but overall, no. But Sion had a lot to do with that.

Our best attacks came with swings to the right side to Alex Moss as she pushed forward.  But even then, we really did not connect anything in the front third of the field. The second half once again offered up, little.  3 shots by us and 2 by the Storm, with us adding 2 corners. None of the shots from either team were dangerous.  If you watch the first 11 minutes, you have seen the game.

Sion didn't really have a sniff of the goal after the first eleven, but they really weren't trying too hard to go forward. They had the table set for the win, and they finished the meal.

Sion seems always to play just great defense. They show that fierceness to go along with their defensive shape as well. That was our second straight year not to score against them, and we do have some weapons. Hats off to the Storm.

We need to regroup, to learn from this match, and to continue to get better. We have a lot of goals still in front of us. Mostly we need to get the ball back on the carpet.

BWhite named freshman Moira Kelley the BWhite Player of the match. She got off to a rocky start in the early minutes, but she was our best player on the field after that. Alex Moss was pretty solid as well.

STATS:

First Half:

Saints: Shots: 2 (1) Corners: 1 (Kimball)

Sion

Shots: Shots: 2 (1) Corners: 0

33:50 Frerking (Chips it over our line to #20 who one touches it forward for the quick shot.)

28:44 Gansner (11 is allowed the "D" ball into the 6-box where we see the full volley.)

Second Half:

Saints: Shots: 3 (2) Corners: 2 (Ragsdale, Klanke)

Sion: Shots: 1 (1) Corners: 1

MoKan Begins

Game 2: 27 March vs Liberty (10-0)

Well, we have improved on last year's 7th place MoKan finish already as we catapulted ourselves into the winner's bracket, guaranteeing at least a 4th place finish. 

 

We were obviously pretty sharp tonight as Liberty is not a squad who should even come close to getting spread. But when we are able to cash set pieces, we can put up some numbers. We scored on 6 deadballs, 6.

It was great to see so many girls get into the match tonight as JV has 4 games this week, so many of our extended girls won't be with us the rest of the week. And my they played well tonight. 

Also, 3 varsity freshmen scored their first varsity goals of their career: Elle Kimball, Moira Kelley and Isa Yanes. Congrats!

 

 

BWhite name Marge Pigott the BWhite Player of the Match. She not only did her disrupting of the opponent's attack, but she launched so many of ours. And she scored twice. 

We will get tested on Wednesday as we will take on defending state champ, Sion, who is currently a top 15 team in the country. 

STATS:

Saints

Shots:  12 (8) Corners: 4 (Pigott, Kimball, Klanke, Woltering). 

36:39. Jackson (Linder finds K Heying who t's it through Klanke) GWG

27:24 Klanke (M Heying's long throw gets flicked by Kimball). 

22:11 Kimball (Moira finds Marge who slips it through)

18:57 Romme (Linder bends in the right corner)

14:36 Kelley (K. Heying taken down in box) 

8:29 Pigott (Klanke bends the deadball in for a Dalinghaus touch and the Pigott finish)

Liberty:  Shots:  1 (1). Corners. 0. 

Second Half:

Saints:  Shots: 6 (4) Corners: 2 (K. Heying)

32:04. Pigott. (M. Heying flips it diagonally)

30:49. M. Heying. (Marge finds Bryson who boxes it through the K. Heying dummy)

30:12. Klanke (Klanke taken down in the box.)

27:45 Yanes: (Linder bends the corner for Romme header down into the box). 

Liberty: Shots: 0 Corners: 0

Opening Night

Game 1: 23 March at BV (1-0)

Ok, we have already improved upon last year as we caught a win at Blue Valley.  (I am not sure why we played them at Blue Valley since we played there last year, but whatever.)

I thought we did a lot right, but with the smaller field and the hefty wind, the conditions did not portend a lot of scoring.  And in soccer, as we all know, you can get more shots, have more opportunities, play great defense and still lose.

Statistically, we were all over them, but in the second half we fouled them in a dangerous spot, survived the dead ball that kept giving: a corner and then another corner off the corner. Those 3 opportunities all gave the Tigers an excellent shot at cashing a goal.

Our back line was just tremendous as usual and freshman Moira Kelley had a brilliant 80-minute debut at defensive center midfield. BWhite gave big shoutouts for Moira and Brigid Linder, but named Hania Crow BWhite Player of the Match.  She shut it all down, everything in the middle of the front third.

Blue Valley played hard and physically, so it was definitely a match. They should have a good year as they are solid throughout their lineup.

I thought for a first game we weren't too bad.  We did not have many, if any, critical gaffes that come so often with first games.

The Tigers played well and we wish them well.

STATS:

First Half:

Saints: Shots: 10 (5) Corners: 5 (Klanke 2, Kelley, Linder, Moss)

Blue Valley:  Shots: 1 (0) Corners: 1

Second Half:

Saints: Shots: 7 (4) Corners: 1 (Kimball)

19:10 Klanke (Raunig finds Kelley who turns, goes forward to find Klanke on the check who creatively drops it to Marge who then completes the up-back-through) GWG

Blue Valley: Shots: 3 (2) Corners: 2

Blue Gold 1.5

18 March vs. JV (5-0)

Hallie Missed Blue Gold 1.5

Every single varsity player who was not on a mission trip made it back from break on time. And the two that were on a mission trip were both home late Friday, making all of Saturday.  I don't know how many years we have to go back to find that focus and dedication. It says so much about this group and what they want to accomplish.

We were missing Hallie, who met up with Influenza A early in Spring Break. We just hope she gets well by early in the week.

We did have our best Blue Gold, however.  We had a ten-pass, 1-and-2 touch ball rotation from deep in the back left-third all the way to goal just before the half. It highlighted all of the improvement we have shown since Blue-Gold .5: Quicker ball movement, receiving across our bodies, as we move the ball to the weak side.

We did have our basketball girls for the first time.  Kyli had a nice match at center midfield while Molly saved quite a few goals for the JV. She had one sequence when she must have saved 5 shots within 10 seconds.

We still have a lot to work on, but we had a jump in performance this afternoon. Katelyn Heying was the BWhite Player of the Match—just a great performance.

Isa Yanes scored in each Blue Gold match as a freshman center midfielder.

The defense was the defense as I am not sure I can remember a JV shot. They did not cross midfield much. 

The next one of these is for real!  Thursday night at Blue Valley who plays in their opener this Tuesday against SM South.

STATS:

Corners: 8 

Shots: 26 (14)

14 in:  Heying (ball rotated from the back of the back to Woltering who found Katelyn on a through ball.) 

30 in: Pigott (Heying T's is through the dummy)

2nd Half:

20 in: Kimball (Mallory's throw gets into the box from the KHeying cross.)

24 in: Woltering (just a great left-footed strike on the ball from Moss)

25 in: Yanes (Marge finds Katelyn who rips it back post)

Blue-Gold 1.0

9 March 2017 at STA vs. Junior Varsity (4-1)

We are 2/3rds through Blue-Gold season, and we are improving. I know we won the first match 6-0, but although we still have much to work on, we played better in this match.

We thought Ramaekers and Goza were superb at centerback for the JV, and both Calvert and McEnroe had good halves in goal; so scoring was more difficult than most other Varsity/JV situations.  And how about the 1 v 1 finish against Calvert by Muckerman. Wow.

Our primary goal in these Blue-Golds is to assimilate our new frosh into the lineup and to get better at center midfield.  Isa, Moira and Amanda (Pam), the frosh centers, played pretty well and better as a group in the second half. 

Despite allowing a goal, our defense played pretty well, and since they are all back from last year, they clearly know what they are doing back there, but how are they linking up with the midfield? Not as well as we would like.

Of our 4 goals, 3 came from the STA Library: 2 T-balls, complete with dummies, and one corner kick. All that is good news.

We are now off to break until Friday. We will then add a couple of basketball players to the mix as we focus in on the start of 2017 a week from Thursday against Blue Valley.

The BWhite Player of the Match, without BWhite around, was Caroline Romme who played well in the back and who cashed a big goal on the corner as she did in last year's state final.

STATS:

Varsity: Shots: 18 (9) Corners: 10 (Woltering, 3 KHeying, Klanke, 3 Kimball, Linder 2

38:24 Klanke (KHeying threads it through)

7:49 Janky (Kimball hits the nice T-ball through the Woltering dummy)

2nd Half:

38:07 Muckerman (Dalinghaus slides the through ball after we misclear the long deadball from Ramaekers)

10:51 Yanes (Klanke T's it through the Kimball dummy)

5:22 Romme (Linder bends it right to the mid-post)

Blue-Gold .5

3 March vs. JV (6-0)

Well, we played as a team for the first time.  And it was good that we did.  We were both good and bad. We will look to get better in Blue-Gold 1.

On the JV side of the ball, Goza had a very nice game. We thought Kutey stood out as well. McEnroe made a couple of dynamite saves too. 

JV could not really get past midfield in the second half, suggesting we obviously were better, and we were. I would take that first 10 minutes of the second half and duplicate it again and again.

Scoring:

First Half:

16 in: M. Heying (Linder bends the right-footed corner in).
18 in: McCormick (Hamm sends a heavy box ball through for the knock-in)

Second Half:

41 in: Yanes (Great sequence involving Kimball and finally Klanke)
45 in: Pigott (Yanes drops Klanke's pass back for the 1-time hit) 
50 in: Klanke (Kimball finds Hallie)
79 in: M. Heying (Handball in box on corner resulting in PK)