From Coach Ed Berberich:
The Soccer Aces hosted the Princeton Tigers Thursday night, winning 3-0. The Aces came out strong and put up a lot of shots from the start, but weren't able to get one in the net until the 33rd minute, when Rayce Loudermilk was fouled in the box, giving the Aces a penalty kick. Britton Heinrich then hit the PK to give the Aces the 1-0 lead heading into the break. The 2nd half was similar to the 1st, with the Aces putting up plenty of shots but not able to get any to go in, until Heinrich scored his 2nd goal of the match to give the Aces a little bit of cushion with 25 minutes remaining. The Aces were able to put the game away with 8 minutes remaining when Heinrich scored his 3rd goal of the game on an assist from Beau Stipp. For the match, the Aces took 35 shots, 23 on frame, created 20 chances, took 1 corner, and had 3 interceptions. The Tigers weren't able to get any official shots off in the match. Tye Kanipe had 5 saves in goal.
We really came out on fire, which as we've said, is something we're wanting to see more of. You could tell the boys were looking forward to this one, and starting off with that level of intensity set the tone for the game, which carried through the whole match. We needed it too, because the Princeton goalie is one of the best opposing keepers we've seen in years. He was able to keep them in the game with a lot of saves throughout the match, and he frustrated us a bit in our finishing. But I think coming out with the attacking attitude that we had helped us play through that and keep working to put up good shots. If we had come out flat and their keeper starts making saves like he did, we probably wouldn't have worked through it as well as we did. Defensively, our back line of Brady Decker, Gui Silva, Jack Deisher and Adam Stoneberger really did a great job of shutting everything down before it got too dangerous. It was a complete effort by those 4, and Jarrett West in front of them. Deisher in particular played some great individual defense on their best attacker. We knew he was dangerous as he's hurt us in the past, and is having a great year currently as well, so trying to contain him was going to be one of the keys to the game. We've got multiple guys I would trust to put on the other team's most dangerous player, but Jack lobbied to be able to match up with him, so along with Adam helping out at times, we went with that and he backed it up all night.
The JV Aces picked up a win as well, also by a score of 3-0. Landon Lagow scored in the 13th minute on an assist from Conner Adams, giving the Aces the 1-0 halftime lead. Gavin Smith scored 6 minutes into the 2nd half on an assist from Eli Bertram, with Bertram adding the final Aces' goal 8 minutes later.
The JV guys have had a good season so far, outside of the Olney match which was just an off night for the whole team. They're playing aggressively in attack, and passing the ball around well for a young group. We need to continue working on our shape when we're attacking and being a little more patient at times as we build up play from the back and through the midfield area. Overall though, we're liking what we're seeing from these guys and if they can keep developing themselves as players, there's a lot of potential there.
The Aces record now stands at 13-0-1 (JV 5-1). Their next match is home at the Wabash Valley College field on Tuesday October 8th at 4:30 pm against Newton.