The scoring drought continued Tuesday, Oct. 3 for the Miami Trace boys soccer team as they hosted the Jackson Ironmen for a Frontier Athletic Conference match.
“We just can’t score,” Miami Trace assistant coach Sean Sweeney said. “For 78 minutes and 36 seconds we played great.”
Jackson scored 1:36 into the first half and that proved to be the game winner.
“If you watch us play, I don’t think you will come away thinking that we are a team that is three and nine,” Miami Trace head coach Josh Thoroman said, referring to the Panthers’ record of 3-9-0, (2-7-0 in the FAC). “We’ve lost four games by a score of 1-0 and one game 2-0.”
Miami Trace and Jackson each finished with 18 shots.
This is only the second time all season that a team committed more fouls than Miami Trace with the Ironmen committing 16 fouls to Miami Trace’s 15.
Sophomore Justin Shoemaker was solid in the goal recording 12 saves versus 18 shots faced.
Jackson’s keeper, senior Trey Moore, only had five saves as 13 of the Panthers’ shots were not on goal or deflected by defenders.
The Panthers had five corner kicks to the Ironmen’s two. This stat always suggests the amount of time spent on one end of the field and helps illustrate that the Panthers spent a lot of time in their offensive third pressuring for a goal.
Miami Trace lost a man due to a red card (accumulation of a second yellow in the same game) and had to play down a man (10 versus 11) for the last 6 minutes and 22 seconds.
The coaches again commended the play of senior defenders Preston Huff, Adam Ginn, Matt Fender, and juniors Drew Batson and Devin Howard.
“Devin is big, athletic, strong, motivated, and very coachable,” Thoroman said. “We had to get him more involved. We moved him to the defense recently and he is just owning his new position.
“Our offensive seniors, Harris Adams, Brett Lewis, Ethan Powell, Jaymon Flaugher, and Cameron Carter played the most of the minutes on offense tonight,” Thoroman said. “I felt like we outplayed Jackson. Our seniors gave it their all. Games like these are for them. This is their senior year and they want to win more than anyone else.
“We gave up a cheap goal one minute and 36 seconds into the game and time after time we simply couldn’t score,” Thoroman said.
The Panthers will host the Washington Blue Lions Thursday at 6:45 p.m.
