Bruins scalp Danville

By Jackie Paquette

The Tri-West and Danville boys’ soccer teams played through the remnants of former Hurricane Gustav at Tri-West High School Thursday evening, with the Bruins coming out on top in a very physical battle, 3-0.

“This game usually decides who wins the Sagamore Conference,” Bruin assistant coach Charlie Louden said. “We have won the conference the last three years, so this was a big game for us. It is always a tough game for us with Danville; it is always a physical game. We tried to get our boys to play just as physical as they did. I felt that we came out and played the way we wanted to play.”

The Bruins had the momentum early on in the game, with their first goal coming off a Danville mishap. Junior Matt Louden send a throw-in onto the field and off the back of a Danville defender’s head and into the goal. The own goal put the Bruins ahead 1-0 and provided a key cog of momentum for Tri-West.

“Call it luck or coincidence, but that was the first goal,” Charlie Louden said. “That’s a momentum booster. It is a big deal when you get that momentum. It really affects the game a lot.”
Tri-West would make the score 2-0 in the 33rd minute of play on a goal from sophomore Tyler Waite. The score came off of a corner kick chance from the Bruin’s senior Alex Skudrovskis and was sent into the bottom right corner of the net by Waite from about five yards out.

After a pair of yellow cards and a narrow-miss by the Bruins on a free kick, the teams went into the halftime break with Tri-West ahead, 2-0.

“We tried to stay up the whole game,” Charlie Louden said. “We have a lot of injuries; we have a lot of players that are playing with sore ankles. This was a big game, so we couldn’t not play them.”
Junior Matt Moore almost pushed the score to 3-0 in the Bruins’ favor just more than half of a minute into the second half, breaking away from the Danville defenders going and one-on-one with Warrior goalie junior Sam Brewer. Moore sent a shot at the net from about 10 yards, but missed as the ball sailed just high of the crossbar.

Senior Kyle Morrissey also had a near-goal, but for Danville. Morrissey took a free kick of his own in the 49th minute of play, and his attempt was tipped over the top of the goal on a leap from Bruin netminder Colin Roetken. The Warriors would get another chance in the 56th minute of play, with junior Tyler Blankenship taking a clear shot at the goal and missing just wide of the net on the left side.
Waite added the third Bruin goal with about 17 minutes left to play, taking a rebound off of his own shot and firing it back at the net. Waite’s first shot came off the left goalpost hard, right back at his foot, enabling the put-back goal.

The Warriors had one more solid chance in the game, with about six and a half minutes on the clock. Sophomore David Haak took a close-range shot that was saved on a great effort by Roetken to preserve the shutout win.
“All in all, our defense is improving,” Charlie Louden said. “This puts us at 4-1 overall for the season. This Danville team has got some good players out there and really gave us a good game.”