Northland Pines Boys get Regional Win over Newman Catholic

Northland Pines defeated Newman Catholic in boys soccer action on Thursday, 3-1.

I first want to say hats off to Newman Catholic.  That team should be very proud of themselves.  They worked hard for the full 90 minutes only having one sub and three players playing banged up and injured.  They showed grit, determination, and heart.  Thank you for a great game.  Now our boys showed a great deal of resilience!  A few minutes into warmups our starting keeper went down been suffering a back injury for about a little over a week.  He wanted to go but just couldn’t and it looks like the injury will end his season.  He is a great young man and works hard.  I know he will come back stronger than ever, continue to learn, and will be a name you will read about in the future and in the mix as the top keeper in the conference.   Our boys had a large amount of losses this year by one goal and tonight we are in playoffs and they showed it was time to find a way!  They rallied behind their backup keeper and  Tonight they did just what they needed to do.  First half we possessed a great deal but could not get by their stingy centerback.  He read the passing plays well and was able to foil most of our attacks.  Earlier in the season we struggled to make changes and adapt at half time.  Tonight we made some adjustments and less than two minutes into the second half, Cody Vojta broke up a Newman pass and took the ball from end to end, putting a shot on net that found the shin of Mason Jahnke for a 1-0 lead.  Newman came back swinging with a nice through ball and our defender made a slide tackle in the box.  There was a penalty called in the box and halfway through the 44th minute the game was once again notched at 1-1.  This caused our boys to get fired up and they changed the pace of the game and went into attack mode.  You saw the sense of urgency and just into the 55th minute AJ Muench played a beautiful cross and our team attacked the net before we could get on the end of the ball Newman’s goalkeeper pushed our attacker preventing him from getting on the ball, and Pines earning a PK. Cody Vojta made it no doubt drilling in the right upper corner of the net closing the game 3-1 Mason Jahnke made a crossing run and beat their speedy defender and an attacking goalkeeper.  The keeper took Mason out at the legs taking away a clear goal-scoring opportunity and giving Pines a free kick just outside the right side of the 18.    Both of us coaches saw a huge gap between the wall and where the keeper was set leaving the right part of the goal open.  We yelled out to crash far post and asked Cody Vojta if he saw what we saw and he said yes.  Right at the last second, he switched his stance and saw a different opportunity.  As he shifted to take the shot with his left foot, Newman seemed to panik and Cody found Anthony Gaetano who played it to Zach Ritter who found the back of the net sealing the victory 3-1!

Shots Pines 18 Newman 15

Shots on Goal 10 Newman 9

Corners Pines 10 Newman 3

Fouls Pines 11 Newman 3

Each team notch a PK goal

Jacob Napel recorded the win in goal with 8 saves