Entries from October 2006 ↓

JV2 played a tough game with New Covenant Academy (NCA) Thursday night, shutting NCA down to a scoreless second half, but lost 0-2. NCA scored one goal mid-way through the first on a contested, nice shot, then scored seconds before halftime on a LONG free kick barely over our goalkeeper. Several NCA parents and coaches noted our boy’s rise in play level since our first meeting in game one of the season. Our boys continue to be examples of hard work and not giving up. They are increasing in defensive intensity each game and are “oh-so-close” to breaking though to a win.

Reading Dr. Cook’s summary of the loss to Catholic made me think about the last time the Pershing boys lost to Catholic.

In the Fall 2001 season, Catholic was the team to beat. They had two incredibly strong forwards in Ben Hamilton and Ryan Haik. Catholic defeated Pershing 2-1 in the regular season. Ben Hamilton, who averaged a hat trick per game for the season, scored two quick goals in the first half and Catholic dominated the run of play. In the second half, we made some defensive adjustments and stymied the Catholic offense. Pershing’s Ryan Frewin netted a goal in the second half.

The 2001 City Championship pitted the undefeated Catholic team against the 8-1 Generals. We worked hard in practice for weeks preparing to defend against the Catholic attack. Pershing shutdown the Catholic forwards and won the City Championship, 2-0, with goals by Ryan Frewin and Steve Wilczewski.

The winning streak put a big target on your backs the same way the attempt to go an entire season without surrendering a goal did to us two years ago. The winning streak is something to be proud of, but the goal every season is to win the City Championship. Learn from the loss and focus on what it will take to earn the three-peat.

1-2-3 Generals!
Bob Jordan

Update: SGFsoccer has posted about the loss on Monday might.

The JV2 team lost a close (and cold) game to cherokee 0-2 last night. The score was 0-0 until midway through the second half. Cherokee scored their two goals within minutes of each other, leaving Pershing down 0-2. But Pershing would not go away, drawing a penalty kick late in the second, with the shot narrowly missing and hitting the left post. Pershing had a final opportunity in the 69th minute, with Austin Meyers making a beautiful feed to Caleb Vick making a great run from the center midfield position. Caleb’s shot also just missed to the left. This game could have easily been 2-2 or a 2-1 win in our favor against a team which had 3 VARSITY players playing down on it. Great job!!!!

The Pershing Varsity beat a surprisingly tough Carver squad tonight bya a score of 6-4.

The game started out looking like a blow-out with Rob Neathery touching in a shot brilliantly set up by Alec Martinez in the first minute following the kickoff. Ryan Collins followed with a goal in the second minute of the first half, also set up by Martinez. Alec then scored in the 5th minute off a nice assist by John Chalender.

Despite their poor start, Carver stormed back, scoring the next two goals. Their first came in the seventh minute after massive substitutions by Pershing, but it was a quality goal that picked apart our defense. Their next goal didn’t come until the 25th minute of the first half, but, again, it was a quality goal coming against the original starters. That brought the score to 3-2.

The first half scoring was closed in the 30th minute on a good goal by Spencer Gahagan, again on an assist by Alec Martinez.

Carver opened the second half scoring in the 10th minute of the half on another defensive mistake by Pershing, narrowing the score to 4-3.

The score remained the same until the 56th minute of the match when Martinez headed in a very good corner kick from Chad Morris. Jake Rogers, who had been forced to miss last week’s game because of illness, provided the next goal on a fine individual effort just two minutes later.

The determined and scrappy Carver team stormed back with another goal just a minute after Jake had scored. The last eleven minutes were scoreless with both teams moving the ball down the field with skill, but not finding the net. The final score was 6-4, and Pershing keeps it’s 24-game winning streak intact.

Despite giving up four goals, Reece Conner had an excellent game in goal. He made several excellent saves when his teammates had been beaten. He also did a great job of distributing the ball and setting up the offensive attack.

Pershing puts its winning streak on the line against unbeaten Catholic next Monday at 6:00 PM. The winner of that game will be the Number One seed in the City Tournament.