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Soccer team starts season with a win
By Taylor Messick
Last Updated: August 31, 2017

On Aug. 29, the Valley Center High School boys' soccer team played its first game of the season at Berean Academy in Elbing. The varsity squad came away with a 5-3 victory after a hard-fought battle.

Valley Center took an early lead before allowing Berean Academy to come back. Although the Hornets pulled off the victory in the end, there was a moment of doubt in the second half. Coach Steen Danielsen said his team can learn from the win.

“This was a lesson to our guys," said Danielsen. “We can do great things, but we can make things look pretty ugly pretty quickly. We're going to be a dynamic team and that can be positive and negative. We need to make sure we keep our heads so we can stay in the middle; keep doing the good things without letting the bad things mess with us. That game could've been a different story if we would've blown up."

The Hornets were aggressive early in the first half, and it only took a few minutes for the boys to get on the scoreboard. The first goal came when Gabriel Marquez took the ball out wide and passed to Austin Wolff. Wolff dribbled briefly before launching a shot to the backside goalpost for the early lead.

Valley Center dominated possession in the first half and only allowed a couple of shot attempts. Near the end of the first half, the Warriors seemed to pack their defense in front of their own goal. This led to a lot of jumbled volleying back and forth and resulted in the Hornets' second goal. The point came off a shot attempt from Matt Spencer that was partially blocked by a Berean defender. The ball ricocheted off the defender and grazed the keeper before rolling between his legs and into the net. It was scored as an own goal by Berean.

After a decent first half, things got interesting early in the second. Wolff was briefly injured and had to come out of the game. Wolff is an experienced leader and his injury left holes in the defense that Berean Academy quickly identified. The Warriors routinely got behind the Hornet defense and created scoring opportunities that weren't contested as heavily as Danielsen would've liked. The results were three unanswered goals in a 15-minute span that gave Berean a 3-2 lead.

“You've got to give Berean credit," said Danielsen. “They have size and athleticism and they were positive the entire game. Teammates weren't getting frustrated. They were supporting each other. They were very aggressive. They noticed a flaw in our defense and started taking advantage of it. They became more intentional and that increased their confidence. There are things we can improve on, defensively, but I have to give them credit for putting pressure on us and forcing us to mess up. That's what a good offense does."

Less than a minute after Berean took the lead, Max Fields brought the Hornets even again. Fields took the ball straight down the field with a vengeance after the Warriors got their third goal and single handedly provided the Hornets with a boost.

“That was so crucial at the time that it happened," said Danielsen. “It was so sudden that it really prevented us from getting in our own heads. It was an immediate response and that shows how much of a gamer Sam is. I don't coach kids to dribble all the way up the field nine times out of 10, but there's a spot for it. That showed how much he wanted it and you got to see him use a little bit of creativity. I'm not mad about it; that put us right back in the game."

After tying the game, the Hornets slowly regained control of the tempo. The Warriors got a couple more shot attempts late in the game but most were well off the mark. Valley Center got its fourth goal on some nice footwork from Michael Love. Love created space between him and the defender and fired off a quick, accurate mid-range shot to give the Hornets the lead once again.

Sam Fields scored the fifth and final goal of the game for Valley Center on a penalty shot. Fields was awarded the shot after hustling down the field and putting pressure on a defender by trying to receive a long pass. The defender knew he was the only one Fields needed to beat and tripped him while trying to make a play on the long pass.

On Aug. 31, the team will play at Maize before starting a tournament at Maize South the following week.

Junior varsity — The JV team also won at Berean Academy by a score of 4-0. Goals were scored by Cayden Myers, Ben Lutz and Josh Isaacs, who had two. Jeffery Ju and Cayden Myers earned assists.






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