TG 2- Rogers 1
Match Day Seven saw the Eagles host 2-5 Rogers at home. An energetic tradition is forming on Thursday night home games at Jim Totino Stadium. The student section is boisterous and enthusiastic and this evening, the Eagles gave the home fans plenty to cheer about. From the onset, the Eagles were on the front foot, forcing quick decisions when Rogers had possession and demanding stout defending of the Royals when the Eagles played the ball into their attacking end. Totino-Grace hosted Youth Night. Before the game, the team was reminded what it felt like to be an elementary school boy and dream about playing varsity soccer under the lights. The Eagles were focused on pressuring the ball, owning their space, and taking their game to the next level as they climb up the mountain of this season. A spirited captain Vince Jacob speech cheered the Eagles on to a victorious evening. Rogers’ leading scorer entered the game with seven goals and junior keeper Everett Schutta and the Eagles’ defense of senior captain Fran Serna, sophomore Luke Brandt, junior captain Ty Michaelson, and senior Keenan Friden, did well to limit his chances. The Eagles were strengthened by junior captain Vince Jacob’s return from missing two weeks due to injury. His ball-winning capability and athletic defending was appreciated moments after he was subbed in in the first half. The Eagles had plenty of the ball but were not designing goal-scoring chances of the quality they hoped for. A few errant shots and some mis-touches prevented the Eagles from gaining a first-half lead. At halftime the message was simple: be more direct. Get to goal quicker. Sophomore playmaker, Jabari Kibisu, had multiple attacking dribbles toward goal–one earning a foul call from the ref, while Kibisu demonstrated the strength to play the advantage 25 yards from goal and another identical breakthrough where the ref issued a yellow card to the Royal offender. Kibisu’s ensuing freekick bounced off the post where Jacob modeled the team mantra ‘expect the best’ by following the shot, slotting it past the diving keeper to give the Eagles a well-earned 1-0 lead in the 59th minute. Moments later Kibisu broke in on goal again only to see his blast go just over the crossbar. In the 62nd minute, junior captain Ty Michaelson played a freekick from the midfield wide to Friden. Friden penetrated from the wide flank and played a ball to the opposite flank where freshman Liam Gill made a looping run and backheeled the bouncing ball out of the air over a Rogers defender to senior attacker Joe ‘Harry Kane’ Eischen on top of the penalty box with his defender on his back. Eischen one-timed it to his left into the path of senior midfielder Tanner Johnson, who touched it toward goal, attracting the attention of the defender and keeper, then played an unselfishly lovely cross back to Eischen who one-timed it into an open net–a thing of beauty! The Royals made the last two minutes interesting when the Eagles failed to clear a corner kick and they scored with under two minutes remaining. The Eagles didn’t let Rogers look at goal after that. The Eagles had their highest amount of total shots thus far this season, placing nine of them on goal. Schutta had three saves on four Royals shots. The team is very grateful to the loud and supportive fan base of friends and family. They host Mahtomedi Saturday, Sept 16 at 3PM after the B/C team’s 11am match and the JV team’s 1PM match. Go Eagles!