From Coach Ed Berberich:
The Mt Carmel Soccer Aces hit the road twice last week to open the season, losing 1-7 to Olney and 0-6 to Metropolis. Against Olney, the Tigers took the lead in the 10th minute, but the game remained scoreless from there until Olney was able to score 2 goals late in the 1st half to go up 3. The Aces cut the lead to 1-3 early in the 2nd half when David Munoz converted on a penalty kick that was earned when the Tigers fouled Wyatt Howder in the box. The Aces gained some momentum from the goal but were unable to capitalize on anything from then on. The score remained 1-3, until the Tigers got their 4th goal with 15 minutes left in the match, and then added 3 more in the last 10 minutes as the Aces wore down. On the match, the Aces took 8 shots with 3 on frame, created 3 additional scoring chances, and had 15 interceptions. Ty Hipsher had 8 saves in goal. The Tigers took 25 shots with 11 on frame. Against Massac County the Patriots took a 1-0 lead when they scored in the 25th minute of play, but the Aces held on defensively and the half ended with just the single goal. The 2nd half started poorly, with the Aces giving up 3 quick goals in the first 10 minutes of the half to fall behind 0-4, putting the game out of reach. For the match the Aces took 2 shots with 1 on frame, created 1 additional scoring chance and had 10 interceptions. Ty Hipsher had 9 saves in goal. Massac County took 19 shots with 7 on frame.
In both games we hung around for a while, but wore down as the matches went on. We’ve been severely shorthanded due to injuries and working to get players eligible still, so that’s we really expected to struggle in that regard. We had 2 subs in the first match and only 1 in the second which makes it hard for us to finish as strongly as we’d like. We’re also the most inexperienced team I’ve ever had at the boy’s high school level, with no seniors on the squad and 7 of us having never played soccer before outside of a couple of players when they were really young. We’re just going to need to push through these first few games as we work towards gaining some experience and getting to full strength, which for that will hopefully be in about a week. But the guys are playing hard and learning as they go, so we’re hoping to be able to start building on things when we’re all available. Some of the things that are heartening to us is that Ty has done a great job in goal while being under a lot of pressure with such a young team in front of him. Also, defensively we’re doing ok considering the situation and are getting better as we gain experience. Lastly, this is a good group of guys that are fun to coach so that makes everything a little easier to deal with. At the moment, getting our offense up to speed is the biggest job, but that also is expected. To my mind that’s the hardest thing to catch on to when you’re new to the game as so many of us are. Once we’re able to get a more consistent attack going, that will lessen the pressure on both Ty in goal and the defenders directly in front of him. That’s just going to take some time though, so we’ll be patient as we work towards that goal.
The Aces kick off their home opener at 6 pm on Tuesday 9/10 against Robinson.