2011 Senior Boys High School Soccer

[Captain Shamrock]

It's that time of year again so I thought we would start a new thread. So far, we have played 11 games(2 tournaments) and have won 8 and lost 3. We just came back this evening from Kamloops where we were fortunate enough to win the tournament. We beat a very good Panorama Ridge team in penalty kicks in the semi-finals and we were very fortunate to do so. In the final, we beat another Valley team, Johnson Heights, who had a couple of decent players. We did this with a small squad(only sub was our backup goalie) so playing 5 games in two days was tough on the boys but we managed to rotate the bodies throughout the tournament. Two of our players left early and missed the final due to going to an HPL PRACTICE. I'm sure their teammates appreciated leaving.....they didn't even tell their HPL coach they were going to the tournament? WTF? Anyway, a good performance by the boys over the last two days.

We started league play against Delta on Tuesday and beat them 8 - 0. Sadly, they are really weak but our league will be tough with North Delta, Sullivan Heights, and Panorama Ridge being the top teams in the bunch. We're hoping to sneak into the 4th position at least.....to get into the Valleys. Time will tell.

Good luck to all the teams participating in their respective leagues.

 

[bandcamp]

We did this with a small squad(only sub was our backup goalie) so playing 5 games in two days was tough on the boys but we managed to rotate the bodies throughout the tournament. Two of our players left early and missed the final due to going to an HPL PRACTICE.

So you had 12 and you managed to 'rotate' the bodies to stay competitive? And then you won the tourney with a 10 man squad...since your two HPL guys left...and your back-up goalie playing where on the field? Very impressive juggling................

 

[4thplacetrophy]

It's that time of year again so I thought we would start a new thread. So far, we have played 11 games(2 tournaments) and have won 8 and lost 3. We just came back this evening from Kamloops where we were fortunate enough to win the tournament. We beat a very good Panorama Ridge team in penalty kicks in the semi-finals and we were very fortunate to do so. In the final, we beat another Valley team, Johnson Heights, who had a couple of decent players. We did this with a small squad(only sub was our backup goalie) so playing 5 games in two days was tough on the boys but we managed to rotate the bodies throughout the tournament. Two of our players left early and missed the final due to going to an HPL PRACTICE. I'm sure their teammates appreciated leaving.....they didn't even tell their HPL coach they were going to the tournament? WTF? Anyway, a good performance by the boys over the last two days.

We started league play against Delta on Tuesday and beat them 8 - 0. Sadly, they are really weak but our league will be tough with North Delta, Sullivan Heights, and Panorama Ridge being the top teams in the bunch. We're hoping to sneak into the 4th position at least.....to get into the Valleys. Time will tell.

Good luck to all the teams participating in their respective leagues.

Why would the kids not go to the HPL practice? Which is more important, a high school soccer tournament or a development program which cost there parents a stupid amount of money?

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Why would the kids not go to the HPL practice? Which is more important, a high school soccer tournament or a development program which cost there parents a stupid amount of money?

Or you could take the logical approach.......if we go to the HPL practice we will leave our team with 11 players. If I miss that HPL practice, I will likely not get a college scholarship. Oh, by the way, it cost money to go to Kamloops. My apologies. They should have missed the final of the tournament to go to a practice which will lead them to the next level. And I'm sure they will get to play in the final of a tournament next week or the week after as it happens all the time.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

So you had 12 and you managed to 'rotate' the bodies to stay competitive? And then you won the tourney with a 10 man squad...since your two HPL guys left...and your back-up goalie playing where on the field? Very impressive juggling................

Yes, Bandcamp. We brought 18 kids.....3 kids are coming off long term injuries so they played a total of 20 minutes over the 3 games on Thursday. One boy rolled his ankle the day before so he couldn't play. That brought us down to 14 players essentially with either keeper playing out as a player. One HPL boy said he wanted to limit his playing time on the Friday......so he played a total of 30 minutes over two 1 hour long games. It was a decent bit of juggling in hind sight. Boys had a great time.....seven new hair styles and they have the memory of winning a school soccer tournament. The sad thing was that one of the boys REALLY want to stay for the final but his parents said no.......We knew ahead of time that this was the plan so it wasn't the end of the world. Not like missing an HPL practice in which it is the end of the world apparently.

 

[lost in the kootenays]

What level is your school? AAA? AAAA?

 

[Captain Shamrock]

AAA....there is no AAAA.........soccer is A or AA or AAA

 

[coach]

Congrats Captain....Most importanly! Was there a TheRob sighting?
Well done and getting the lads away early in the season is allways a Good Thing!

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Thanks, Coach........

A little depressing so far with our league play......we beat Seaquam 7 - 0 and heard that Sullivan Heights beat Elgin Park 12 - 0. WTF? We have always had close games(with the exception of the year we had the team that went to the PRovincial final). It seems to be a HUGE gap between the top 4 and bottom 4 or 5 by the looks of things. We play Elgin Park on Thursday and hopefully their score was because they had 4 guys redcarded......or played short the whole game? BTW, North Delta beat Sullivan Heights 4 - 1 so they are obviously going to be the class of the league again along with Panorama Ridge. But unfortunately for North Delta, they won't be able to play in the Valleys/Provincials because of what happened after the final against Charles Best.

 

[Regs]

Obviously the bottom 4/5 were loaded with HPL players.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Could have been, Regs........could have been. Aaah eeu.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

South Delta 6 Elgin Park 0 - last Thursday.....not much to say except they had a good goalie in the first half.

South Delta 3 Sullivan Heights 0 - This was easily our best performance of the season so far. They have some very good players and we went up 1 - 0 after about 15 minutes off a throw-in back post cross which was volleyed home by our left back...Right after this, their best player had two partial breakaways stopped by our keeper. Two great saves and we built from this. We didn't give them another chance the rest of the game......5-3-2 worked to perfection and we scored two more cracking goals, both on volleys. We have tough games all the rest of the way in the league as we have to play Earl Marriott(who I saw the other day), Tamanawis, North Delta, and Panorama Ridge. We played the weaker teams in our first three games but today was a very good test for the boys. We got one player back who hasn't played yet and he helped. We lost our main goal scorer though at the end of the game to an ankle injury.....hopefully it's not too serious as he has already scored 14 goals for us.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Earl Marriott 2 South Delta 2

A game in which another team went to a defensive shell....something we're used to doing. They had the best player I've seen this year(I believe his name is Shaun?)at the high school level. He played himself in the back and dictated the game from there. Their keeper was good too and he was consistently putting drop kicks 5 yards in front of our 18 yard box, which made things really tough for our back. They went up 1 - 0 on their first chance.......to be honest, it was two yards offside as our keeper made a save only to have 3 players standing in the six yard box. We then pressed and pressed for the rest of the game only to give up a penalty kick after our left back played a terrible back pass which went right to their one striker. Keeper saved the penalty but the shooter(19 who was the excellent player) finished the rebound while our defenders didn't bother their arses tracking in after the penalty. With 8 minutes to go we scored a goal from about 35 yards.....their keeper has a tendency to be off his line and this was mentioned at half-time. Our left back did exactly this and we had some life. At this point we played a 3-3-4 and played route one.....it paid off in the third minute of added time(they were attempting a lot of time wasting tactics) when their other center-back slipped on a probing through ball, only to have our striker pounce on the loose ball and slot it past the keeper. A good battle and that now officially gets us into the Valleys with 4 wins and 1 draw. We have a tough Tamanawis team tomorrow and then the two top teams with us.....North Delta and Panorama Ridge who drew 1 - 1 yesterday.

Go Devils.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

SD 3 ND 1

A cracking game out at Pebble Hill Park today. North Delta is a VERY good team.....best we have played this year and they went up 1 - 0 after 10 minutes after dictating the pace at the start....very disappointing that a throw-in went over a defenders head for the striker to run on to ......but we equalized with a stunning free-kick from 30 yards. We then took it to them for the rest of the first half creating 3 more great chances to their 1......

The second half was equal for the first 10 minutes or so then we scored another belter...this time from a long throw that was cleared to about 25 yards away only to have our left back hit a first time rocket into the bottom corner. Their goalie was excellent but he had not chances....it was time to go to shutdown mode with 20 minutes to go as they were keeping possession in our end but we didn't break only giving them one chance which COULD have been a penalty...but it wasn't called. Our big keeper then grabbed a corner with a minute to go, launched it up the field and our outside midfielder joined the striker creating a 2 on 1 and he finished with a fortunate deflection........game over. A FANTASTIC win for the boys today and we have another game on Thursday against another very good team, Panorama Ridge, who took the piss out of us in Kamloops only to see us win in PKs. This game will decide the league and likely the number one seed in the FRaser Valleys.......GO DEVILS!

 

[between the pipes]

SD 3 ND 1A cracking game out at Pebble Hill Park today. North Delta is a VERY good team.....best we have played this year and they went up 1 - 0 after 10 minutes after dictating the pace at the start....very disappointing that a throw-in went over a defenders head for the striker to run on to ......but we equalized with a stunning free-kick from 30 yards. We then took it to them for the rest of the first half creating 3 more great chances to their 1......The second half was equal for the first 10 minutes or so then we scored another belter...this time from a long throw that was cleared to about 25 yards away only to have our left back hit a first time rocket into the bottom corner. Their goalie was excellent but he had not chances....it was time to go to shutdown mode with 20 minutes to go as they were keeping possession in our end but we didn't break only giving them one chance which COULD have been a penalty...but it wasn't called. Our big keeper then grabbed a corner with a minute to go, launched it up the field and our outside midfielder joined the striker creating a 2 on 1 and he finished with a fortunate deflection........game over. A FANTASTIC win for the boys today and we have another game on Thursday against another very good team, Panorama Ridge, who took the piss out of us in Kamloops only to see us win in PKs. This game will decide the league and likely the number one seed in the FRaser Valleys.......GO DEVILS!

Just wondering how many HPL players scored for you today?

 

[Ballbaby]

Earl Marriott 2 South Delta 2

A game in which another team went to a defensive shell....something we're used to doing. They had the best player I've seen this year(I believe his name is Shaun?)at the high school level. He played himself in the back and dictated the game from there. Their keeper was good too and he was consistently putting drop kicks 5 yards in front of our 18 yard box, which made things really tough for our back. They went up 1 - 0 on their first chance.......to be honest, it was two yards offside as our keeper made a save only to have 3 players standing in the six yard box. We then pressed and pressed for the rest of the game only to give up a penalty kick after our left back played a terrible back pass which went right to their one striker. Keeper saved the penalty but the shooter(19 who was the excellent player) finished the rebound while our defenders didn't bother their arses tracking in after the penalty. With 8 minutes to go we scored a goal from about 35 yards.....their keeper has a tendency to be off his line and this was mentioned at half-time. Our left back did exactly this and we had some life. At this point we played a 3-3-4 and played route one.....it paid off in the third minute of added time(they were attempting a lot of time wasting tactics) when their other center-back slipped on a probing through ball, only to have our striker pounce on the loose ball and slot it past the keeper. A good battle and that now officially gets us into the Valleys with 4 wins and 1 draw. We have a tough Tamanawis team tomorrow and then the two top teams with us.....North Delta and Panorama Ridge who drew 1 - 1 yesterday.

Go Devils.

Shaun Einerson is a very high quality player Captain. He has played for our men's Premier team since last season and does very well and actually starts sometimes. He does not play at the back-line at all which surprised me when you stated that, but of course it makes sense if his team was over-powered by your squad. I have had the pleasure of coaching him many times and he is one of the best at his age group.

He also handles Niall's coaching style very well for a player his age. Can you imagine?

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Just wondering how many HPL players scored for you today?

One on a cracking free-kick. His first of the season. The boy practices free-kicks often and has been due with such an effort. Best I've seen hit in awhile. Two Gold players scored the others....we are top-heavy in gold players and field hockey players. I'm not kidding.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

A very entertaining game out at Newton Athletic today.......Panorama Ridge 2 South Delta 1

I couldn't have asked for more from the boys. One mistake poor communication mistake between the keeper and backline led to their first goal. PR played a conservative 4-1-4-1 which surprised me but it allowed us to really get our defenders involved in the attack. First half ended 1-0 and we created better chances in the first half as both teams showed a fair amount of patience in their attack. PR went up 2 - 0 on a quality through ball and nifty finish. We went all out at this point and were rewarded with a goal after some constant pressure. There was still 27 minutes left and we poured it on the rest of the game only to have their keeper make two fantastic saves. We only needed the tie to finish first and we were very close to doing that. Their coaches are great guys and I'm happy for them. It was definitely an enjoyable game for everyone who was out at NAP today. Onto the coaches meeting tomorrow to try and figure out the seedings for the Valley tournament next week.

Go Devils!

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Fraser Valley Round One

South Delta 2 Sardis 1 - Sardis went up after about 10 minutes on a blunder by a keeper's poor goal kick and a center-back trying to control the blunder with his shin. End result...breakaway goal for their striker. We then scored on a PK about 10 minutes after this followed by another before the half. We had two great chances to move ahead before the half also but didn't. Same pattern for the second half where we had no less than 3 breakaways.....only to not score on any of them. They had one great chance at the death with a clear header which was sensationally saved by our keeper. On to round 2.

Some upsets in round one.....all the teams in our league won, except our 4th placed team which lost on PKS to the number 2 seed. We play Enver Creek on Thursday at Enver Creek, hoping to try and qualify in the process.

Go Devils!

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Other results.....

#2 (8 vs 9)	Heritage Woods	Queen Elizabeth	Heritage Woods Secondary	3-0
	#3 (5 vs 12)	South Delta	Sardis	Pebble Hill Park	2-1
	#4 (4 vs 13)	Enver Creek	Princess Margaret	Enver Creek Secondary	2-0
	#5 (3 vs 14)	Port Moody	North Surrey	Port Moody Secondary	0-2
	#6 (6 vs 11)	Abbotsford Collegiate	Earl Marriott	Babich Park	1-4
	#7 (7 vs 10)	LA Matheson	Terry Fox	LA Matheson Secondary	1-2 PK
	#8 (2 vs 15)	Guildford Park	Sullivan Heights	Guildford Park Secondary	4-3 PK