Bulldog soccer off to strong start
Published 10:57 pm Wednesday, March 13, 2013
![King's Fork High School's David Miller heads the ball into the goal in the second half against Green Run High School, but he was declared offsides, negating the score. It still served as component contributing to the momentum that the Bulldogs rode to a 5-0 win at home on Wednesday night.](https://www.suffolknewsherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2013/03/IMG_4523.jpg)
King’s Fork High School’s David Miller heads the ball into the goal in the second half against Green Run High School, but he was declared offsides, negating the score. It still served as component contributing to the momentum that the Bulldogs rode to a 5-0 win at home on Wednesday night.
The King’s Fork boys’ soccer team hosted Green Run High School on Wednesday and posted a 5-0 win, continuing the positive start the Bulldogs experienced after a 2-0 season-opening victory on Monday at Phoebus High School.
Wednesday’s contest was close going into halftime as the Bulldogs held onto a 1-0 lead. Nick Hummel had struck first off of an assist from AJ Jenkins.
Oludare Olugbemi and Jenkins put some pressure on the Stallions goalkeeper in the waning minutes of the first half but could not get through. The King’s Fork offense also misfired some early in the second half.
While pleased with his team’s effort, head coach Todd Gidley noticed the missed opportunities.
“We had 15 goals, we had 15 opportunities, clearly, almost wide-open nets,” he said.
Gidley said that the team was aware of what it needed to work on, though, after a cold night that was made even more so by wind.
“I think the young men in the locker room are celebrating, but I think they’re very cognitive that they were not using wisdom in their shots,” Gidley said. “We had a very strong wind, and I told them low shots, and we went airborne four or five times, right over the goal.”
The need to hone the team’s accuracy reminded Gidley of the struggles they experienced in tryouts.
“In our tryouts, we had only 20 percent accuracy,” he said. “They had 10 shots and they only got two in, and our big focus has been fundamentals. One touch pass, accurate shots, defend the goal — that’s it.”
The Bulldogs began to exhibit more of those fundamentals in the second half. With 24:05 remaining in the game, Olugbemi scored off an assist from fellow senior Bo Lawrence.
“He helped me set up, he left the ball for me and I placed it in,” Olugbemi said.
Olugbemi described the game as a tale of two halves.
“First half, coming in, we knew what we had to do, we had to score, but I guess we just weren’t mellowing, the second game, the beginning of the season,” he said. “The second half, we usually come together, everybody gets in sync, we’re going on the same page, working together, talking more and everything.”
The Bulldogs sometimes had difficulty maintaining possession in the midfield, but there reached a point in the second half that once they punched through, they were always a threat to score.
With 14:35 to go, David Miller headed the ball into the goal, but was called for offsides. King’s Fork quickly came back down the field.
“I think we just wore them down, and I was just able just to get past them every time,” Lawrence said.
With the assist of Olugbemi, Lawrence was just getting started.
“My boy, he let the ball go for me and I scored, but he went back and scored three more,” Olugbemi said.
Lawrence fired a shot off with 8:52 left that hit the crossbar and bounced over the plane of the goal line to make it 3-0. Then, with 2:15 to go, he practiced what Coach Gidley told his team to do and placed a nice shot low and to the back left corner off of the Stallions’ goal off of an assist from Gabe Blanco.
Lawrence’s final goal with under two minutes to go happened in virtually the exact same fashion off of an assist by Olugbemi. Lawrence explained what helped him catch fire.
“I really had to get into the game,” he said. “In the first half, I could have had like two to three goals. I messed up. I just stayed in it. The second half, I came out, I think I got all three of my goals like in the last seven minutes. Just hard work, staying in the game.”
King’s Fork hits the road to play Lake Taylor High School next Tuesday.