End of the Season Wrap Up

First, my apologies for not putting up game reports from the last several games.  Due to the inclimate weather that plagued us all season, our last 11 days of the season were fast and furious.  In a span of 11 days, we had to play six matches, five of which were conference matches. 

After the Rio match, we had to take on WV Tech in a make up game.  We started the match very flat and gave up a goal ten minutes into the match.  After that moment, we played well and had a couple of goals ruled out (one for offside, the other was a brilliant free kick by Stephen Johnson, but he didn't realize it was indirect).  We put WV Tech under a lot of pressure in the second half, but we could not find the equalizer.

The next day, we had to play a match against Shawnee State.  Because of the amount of important confernce matches that were coming our way in the following days, I made a decision to rest most of the first team and only send a couple of the expereinced guys that were recovering from illness and sickness.  We ended up losing 3-0 to a weak Shawnee State team, but all of the players that went on the trip recieved valuable experience that will help them later in their careers.

Monday came the biggest match of the season for us, Campbellsville.  For those who are not familiar with Georgetown, Campbellsville is our biggest rival no matter what the sport is, so the entire college was pumped for this match.   With the starters resting on the weekend, we started very brightly and were putting Campbellsville under a lot of pressure with several terrific efforts, including a Stephen Johnson 35 yarder that crashed off of the crossbar.  The game evened out and the teams went in at half 0-0.  The 2nd half was more of the same.  As the minutes went down on the clock and the game looked certain to go to overtime, David Guthrie was able to connect with a header after a mad scramble off of a set piece, and got the game winning goal with 17 seconds left on the clock.  It was an incredible feeling to win like that, especially since Campbellsville beat us in the playoffs in a similar fashion the season before.

Wednesday finished our make up matches with St. Catherine's.  Our goal for this day was to score early and get players off to get them rested.  Matt Simpson and Mike Durborow obliged and got us up 2-0 very quickly, and we were able to relax, despite St. Catherine's really putting us under pressure.  The field was certainly an issue as it was a mud bog on one side of the field, but we were able to add another goal in the 2nd and cruise out of there with a 3-0 win.

What can I really say about the 2nd WVA Tech match?  We were really excited to be able to play them again as we felt we were the better team the previous Friday, it also meant we finished a place higher than we were predicted in the Conference.  Going into Saturday, we had two excellent training sessions and the staff and players thought we were ready.  However, we started slowly again and were soon looking at a 2-0 deficit.  I cannot really sum up into words the amount of dissapointment I had in the players.  If we were giving up terrific goals, that is one thing, but we were aweful.  Not a lot of heart, not any fight, and very little soccer summed up the day.

8-8-1 is how we finished the year.  No doubt in my mind that we should have got to the 10 win mark again, however with all of the uncontrollable factors this year, it made the year very difficult.  The constant rain reschedules and lack of training kept us from realy peaking this year.  Most of October was spent inside playing futsal and not on the training field.  When I made the schedule this year, I tried to make sure that we didn't have a string of games on top of each other, but the rain destroyed that.  It is also easy to forget that we only returned four starters from the team that faced Campbellsville in the last game of 2008; Alex Martin, Austin Schobel, David Guthie, and Javier Rondon.  We were a young team, and that showed at times this year.

Right now, we are in the midst of recruiting.  We are only losing three seniors; Alex Martin, Javier Rondon, and Joe Fisher.  Hopefully we can find players that are not good soccer players to help replace these guys, but also good people as these three seniors are terrific young men and will be missed here.

We will post from time to time in the offseason to keep all you GC fans up to date on what is going on with the program.  We will also be tweeting from the recruiting tourneys we will be attending.

Go Tigers!

#6 Rio Grande 4, GC 2

In back to back weeks, we have faced a top 10 team in the NAIA.  In back to back weeks, we have played very well against these teams.

With us starting to get over our sickness, three guys returned to the line up, and three more are due back against West Virginia Tech on Friday.  We are starting to get healthy, and we are starting to play very well.

The first half was very mixed for us.  We played very well, however, we gave up two soft goals for us.  We also had a goal taken for offside on a set piece, which would have made the game 2-1 and would have changed the tone of the match. 

Again, we started the 2nd half very well, and very positive looking to go foward and get a goal.  Unfortunately, Rio provided a moment of magic to make it 3-0.

Just when we looked dead in the water, we were able to win a penalty and Matt Simpson was able to drill it home to make it 3-1.  However, Rio struck again with a header that hit the post and came back and hit off our keeper and back in the goal to make it 4-1.  Again, we pushed forward and found another goal to make it 4-2 with Austin Moman finishing off the move.

Overall, I was very pleased with our performance, but also a little dissapointed.  I am dissapointed because I feel like they way we played last night, we could have won the game had we been a little bit sharper on the defensive end.  The past three matches have prepared us well for our big two games coming up, WV Tech and Campbellsville.  Hopefully we will put it together and get some much needed wins.

GC 2, Oakland City 1

For those who are not very close to the team, you would not be aware that since our Lindsey game last Tuesday, we have had a rash of illness break out on the team.  Going into Saturday's game, we had nine players unavailable to play due to illness, and a few more due to injuries.  We travelled to Oakland City without 7 players who have started more than one match at the varsity level.  To say we were bringing an inexerienced team would be an understatement.

As it is said, one man's dissapointment is another man's oppurtunity.  We had four players making their first start of the season against a very good Oakland City side.  Oakland City had tied fellow D2 team Bellarmine 1-1 earlier in the season.  They had also played a top 25 NAIA Mid-Continent team close, so we knew this was going to be a tough match, even before we knew that most of our normal starting players were not going to be available.

As the whistle blew to start the match, we got off to a good start, knocking the ball around with confidence.  With all of the less experienced players on the field, I was worried that some of the more experienced guys would want to sit back and defend, but this was not the case.  The guys really pushed forward to get a goal.  After 15 minutes, we got what we were pushing for, with Austin Moman sending in a cross for Jordan Gregory.  Gregory went up to head the ball, but missed.  However, an Oakland City defender was tracking back and could not get out of the way of the ball, and knocked it in his own goal.  With the confidence of a 1-0 lead, the guys really started to take control of the game.  Oakland City got more and more unsettled and started committing fouls all over the pitch and finally drew the ref's ire.  Soon they were down to 10 men, and half time had not even hit yet.

We talked at half time about staying composed and managing the game.  We knew with them being a goal down that they would bring high pressure and press for a goal.  Our inexperienced showed for the first part of the 2nd half and allowed them to get a goal to tie the game at 1-1.  We made a few adjustments to soak up more pressure because I knew that they would tire with the lack of substitutions and being a man down.  Fortunately for us, an Oakland City player talked himself into a 2nd yellow, and now they were down two men with 20 minutes to play.  Five minutes later, Austin Moman struck from 20 yards out with a nice left footed shot to put the game at 2-1, and we were comfortable the rest of the way.

I was really proud of the guys for the way they handled adversity on Saturday.  They could have easily gone through the motions and lost badly, and no one would really ask a lot of questions about that.

#3 Lindsey Wilson 3, GC 0

We knew going into this game that we had a mountain to climb.  Wes Jones, Matt Simpson, and Michael Durborow were going to be out for this match due to injuries sustained the previous weekend against Union College and the University of the Cumberland's.   Add to that, Lindsey was coming off a defeat from William Carey this weekend, and the scare we put into them last year in our 3-2 loss, we knew Lindsey would be highly motivated going into this match.

Because of the weather this past week (I feel like a broken record on this now), we were only able to have two solid days to train outdoors.  In that time, I decided that we would have to run a different system of play based on who was healthy that would give us a chance, and the guys adapted well.

The first 10 minutes, we were not really in the game at all.  Lindsey was knocking the ball all over the pitch, but was not really getting the ball into dangerous areas.  As we started to get into the game and have some moments of possession, Lindsey started to pick up the pressure.  After 25 minutes, Lindsey had a run of about 5 minutes of sustained pressure that saw Keeper Steven Baumfalk make two fantastic saves, but Lindsey were not to be denied and finally scored.

We continued pressing forward searching for a goal and had a couple of half-chances, but Lindsey was able to score five minutes before halftime to make it 2-0.  They scored again right after the break to make it 3-0, but we started pressing again.  For 20 minutes, we had the ball and kept sustained pressure on Lindsey and was able to earn a spot kick.  Unfortunatly it was not well hit and was saved.  We had a few more chances but could not find the net. 

Despite losing 3-0, I was pleased with the performance.  While we defended hard, we also went forward when we could to get a goal.  The goals Lindsey scored were from rebounds off blocked shots and saves.  They did not break us down and did not get behind us last night, which was a tactical goal for us.  Hopefully this a game to build from.

#25 University of the Cumberland's 4, Georgetown 1

When you first look at the score, you think that we got a lesson in football yesterday.  4-1 is a massive score line in soccer. 

However, the game was much closer than the score.  Cumberland's opened the scoring about 30 minutes into the game with a terrific header that Travis Eaves and Steven Baumfalk could do nothing about.  The game went to half at a score 1-0. 

At the half we talked about a few things tactically we wanted to change, and some ways to try and stop the Cumberland attack.  Two minutes into the 2nd half the Cumberland's left back scored and impressive goal into the top corner to make it 2-0.  At this point, we were either going to come out swinging, or we were going to go quietly.

We came out swinging.

The team starting pressuring Cumberland's higher up the field and created a few turnovers.  Brian Swanson was able to head a ball into the path of Austin Moman, who cooly finished around the Cumberland's keeper. 

Game on!

However, it was not meant to be on this day.  Just a few minutes later after we had begun to establish ourselves offensively, Cumberland's got a free kick from 25 yards out.  The Cumberland's striker struck the ball poorly when one of our players stuck his foot out to block the shot, for him to only turn into the back of our own net.

That took the wind out of our sails, and when a missed offside call led to their fourth, we were done.


Hopefully we can regroup for Thursday's game at St. Catherine's.