Northview Titans Varsity Boys Game Summaries

Northview v. Pope Greyhounds 4-3
February 29, 2008

On a wet and rainy night, the Titans were looking for revenge to last year’s penalty shoot-out loss and the team kicked-off in a 4-4-2 formation:-

Carter Rhoad
Tyler Chamblin           Caulin Collier              Jarrod Neser                Chase Reineke
Chris Britton               Jacob Lee                    Tanner Chamblin         Dan Schwartz
Stephen Dunbar          Eric Carrion

Wonderful news!  This is our first region game and we’ve regressed to the two referee system!

The Titans were defending the TitanTron as the Greyhounds kicked-off to start the game, the first part of which was very slow to develop.  The first real threat came in the 10th minute when Jarrod Neser threw the ball to Eric Carrion who passed back to Jarrod and his shot was caught by the Pope keeper on the line.  Just after that Pope began attacking the Titans and Caulin Collier was twice called into action to break up the attack.  Northview knew they were riding their luck in the 13th minute when a Pope forward’s shot was deflected by the Titans’ defense but the referee (or, rather, one of the referees) called a goal kick.  Stephen Dunbar then took the ball down the right wing, crossed it and received the defense’s clearance straight back but he couldn’t do anything with it and shot wide.

Northview were more than holding their own with Jacob Lee and Tanner Chamblin working well together in midfield.  In the 17th minute Jarrod Neser, Tyler Chamblin and Eric Carrion combined well together but Pope cleared the ball and a fast forward was caught offside just inside the Titan half.  The warning was not heeded and in the 19th minute the same Pope forward beat the offside trap and, despite Caulin Collier giving chase, he tore off towards the Titans’ goal.  As Carter Rhoad came out to block him, the forward hammered a shot past Carter to give Pope the lead 1 – 0.  Northview came close to equalizing one minute later as Jacob Lee crossed the ball for Dan Schwartz and his header beat the keeper but was deflected just wide. 

Coach C had tried to get Jason Scannella into the game but he had to wait several minutes on the line for the chance to come on and replace Stephen Dunbar in the 25th minute.  Carter Rhoad deflected a long distance shot a few minutes later and as a Pope forward came in he was called for offside.  Jeffrey Degen then made his appearance by coming on for Chris Britton.  With five minutes left in the half Northview kept looking for the equalizer as, firstly, Jeffrey Degen had a header which was cleared for a throw-in and then, secondly, Jacob Lee forced the keeper to concede a corner with a fine diving save to his right.  From the corner, Eric Carrion hit a shot high over the bar.

For the start of the second half, Russell Bradford replaced Tyler Chamblin and Chad Elsey replaced Chase Reineke.  The Titans kept up a constant attack for the first five minutes but could not get any shots on target then, as luck would have it, in the 45th minute a speculative shot by a Pope player from 35 yds skidded away from Carter Rhoad and he could only palm it into the left side of his goal.  The Titans have seen this before this season…despite more possession and better opportunities than their opponents they failed to capitalize and were down by two sucker goals.

They had an uphill battle but could they respond?  Yes!  In the 57th minute Eric Carrion took the ball into the right side of the penalty box and was fouled.  Eric took the penalty himself and scored to half Pope’s lead 2 – 1.  His penalty was parried by the keeper but Eric followed up and got to the rebound first to score.  With 18 minutes left Chase Reineke came in for Russell Bradford and Jason Scannella replaced Chris Britton.  Jason had an immediate impact when he received the ball from Jeffrey Degen and his hard, low cross could not be held by the keeper and Eric Carrion was lying in wait to score his second and tie the game 2 – 2.

In the 73rd minute Tyler Chamblin subbed-in for Chase Reineke.  Unbelievably, within two minutes the Titans took the lead.  The ball was crossed in from the right and as Pope struggled to clear it, the ball fell for Dan Schwartz who scored to give Northview the lead 3 – 2.  After coming back from a two goal deficit could Northview snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?  No!  With 9 seconds left, Pope tied the game after poor concentration in the Titans’ defense let them off the hook.

In the first half of extra time nothing really happened except that Jeffrey Degen replace Jason Scannella who appeared to have been winded after a heavy tackle from behind.  The second half was also uneventful so for the second year in a row these two teams went to a penalty shoot-out.

Pope took the first of 10 penalties followed by the Titans:-

Pope goal	Tanner Chamblin	1 – 1
Pope goal	Jacob Lee	2 – 2
Pope (saved)	Chris Britton	2 – 3
Pope goal	Eric Carrion	3 – 4
Pope goal	Carter Rhoad	4 – 5

 

Final score: Northview Titans 4 – 3 Pope Greyhounds