Regional Final 2024, Halloween
Game 18 (11-6-1)
31 October vs. Turner at Turner (3-1)
We traveled to Turner High School, the number two seed, for this year's Region 2 Final. We played well against a very technical and aggressive team, but it was a battle.
I thought we benefitted from opening up without a "9" in our 4-2-4. We limited chances early, and it paid off, as we also got out of the first fifteen minutes with a lead. The Golden Bears only got two shots off in the first half, but they did tally three corners.
We scored about 9 minutes in on an STA ball. We stayed in our opening formation for about 15 minutes, but Spence did not get the memo when we came out of it, so he was overcommitting to the right side for most of the first half. (That mistake was on me for just telling one person we were moving into our normal formation.)
David Weinberg had just a great deadball with about 7 minutes left in the half after Brody got fouled. He bent it hard and down at the keeper who could not handle the shot (especially with Bobby's dummy header right in front of him).
So we took a 2-0 lead into halftime.
Our second-half focus was to get to three before they got to one. And it happened five minutes in with a long free kick from Laws to Befort's head. Just a great goal.
We ended up losing Zinkus for the entire second half after a jarring tackle took him down. Michael filled that defensive 6 role for most of the second half until he got rocked, and thenSanti had to take his place for about 8 minutes.
The Golden Bears played hard in front of just a great Turner crowd that could make some serious noise. It was quite an atmosphere.
They fielded several players who I plan on voting for on our All-State ballot—just a talented team with some serious drive.
We had to produce one of our better efforts to win this one. We cashed one from the field, along with two set pieces. Turner countered one of our deadballs into a corner that they scored on with a nice service to a back-post headball.
So the boys grabbed our 33rd Regional Championship plaque, our 23rd in a row took some pictures before exiting the field between a gauntlet of parents and other fans applauding them. (Check it out!)
We have earned our rematch with number two in the USA, BVSW, who just drubbed us during the regular season. We were missing a bunch, so this one should be much more competitive.
Go Saints! State Quarters next.
Coach Zande, Coach Hammons, Coach Ewing, Coach Grow, Coach Ragsdale & Coach Eric Ewing
MOM: Miles Laws and Greyson RutterSTATS:
First Half:
Saints: Shots: 6 (5) Corners: 1 (Janeway)
31:28 Ragan (Omar finds Janeway on a diagonal run before he boxes it for the Spencer punch-in).
6:55 Weinberg (Siebert gets fouled as he cuts across the top of the box)
Golden Bears: Shots: 2 (1) Corners: 3
Second Half:
Saints: Shots: 3 (2) Corners: 4 (Doerfler, Richlin 2, Laws)
36:58 Befort (Laws lifts the long deadball to the back post for the header)
Golden Bears: Shots: 3 (3) Corners: 0
34:33 Rojas (Her lifts the corner to the back post for the nice head-in)
Halloween Practice
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