Northview Titans Varsity Boys Game Summaries
Northview v. Roswell 2-0
March 3rd, 2006
They stepped up.
Faced with playing down a man for more than half the match, the Titans just worked harder. Northview’s non-region winning ways continued tonight, with a 2-0 victory over the Roswell Hornets. The Northview squad continued to create opportunities to score, and they stifled the opponents from doing the same. The Hornets also gave away the ball to the Titans many times with mental errors; alert reaction from the Titan attackers and midfield players took advantage of those mistakes.
Northview’s defensive play continued to shine, shutting down Roswell from advancing inside 30 yards many times thru the match. And when Titan keeper Will Whorton had to stare down the ball from close range, he met the challenge.
As the match began, the Hornets and Titans both came downfield and tested the keepers. The Titans’ Brandon McCollum took a throw in from Andrew Cameron and steered a header low left from 10 yards out, but was denied. Three minutes later, Roswell crossed in from 6 yards on the left, and Whorton dove forward to snag the ball. On the next drive downfield, Jeff Scannella got pushed from behind at 30 yards, and Sam Bevan’s free kick on goal had good pace, but the Hornets’ keeper fielded the line drive.
The Hornets drove deep into Northview’s end again. After a foul by Stephen Gulia at 12 yards on the right, Roswell’s free kick rolled thru the box and over the end line. The Titans’ Sayeed Mehrjerdian ran the next attack on the left side. The Hornets cleared, and Sayeed controlled again after the throw in, recovered his own blocked shot, advanced in to 8 yards and shot again, but went high.
After the next Hornets’ attack in to the right corner, Andrew Johnson stole the ball, but his clearing pass was taken by Roswell at midfield and they advanced again. The Hornets wasted two corner kick opportunities however, with the first going over the end line, the second cleared away by the Titans. In the first ten minutes, the Hornets had kept Northview from a sustained attack, but that soon changed.
Jeremy Still started the momentum shift with a midfield pass in to Scannella, who dribbled in to 20 yards and laid it off to Stille making a run on the right in the box. While no shot came on that drive, the Titans reclaimed the ball at midfield, and Andrew Cameron saw Jeff Scannella free on the right side. The pass went long and the Hornets’ keeper got to the ball first. But the Titans kept it up. In the next two minutes McCollum and Scannella teamed up to get the ball to Mehrjerdian just off the left post again, but again his shot missed the mark.
From 15 to 25 minutes thru the match, it was all Northview ball control and attacking. The first was Andrew Johnson to Stille on the right side, who came in to 8 yards, and his shot was saved by the keeper. The second was on a free kick from midfield by Stille into the penalty area, with Sayeed’s header from 12 yards being snared by the keeper up high. The third was an errant Hornets pass back in their own half to an open area on the left. As Scannella went for it, Roswell recovered, but Jeff got a shot from 15 yards on the left and the keeper again saved.
Next Johnson crossed in from 40 yards to Stille at 10 yards, who found Cameron Pratt on the side of the box. His hard cross back thru, found no one on the left side. Then Tanner Chamblin won Roswell’s clearing pass at midfield. The Titans won a corner kick on the next attack, and the long inbound corner was headed back on net by Andrew Cameron with the keeper making a save down low. Jeff Scannella advanced in on the next cycle, dribbling, turning, shooting – the Hornets keeper punched the shot over the cross bar.
Andrew Johnson was quick to the ball as the Hornets couldn’t clear their own end a minute later. He put the ball in to Scannella whose shot from 10 yards was cleared for another Titan corner kick. Once Roswell regained the ball, Tanner Chamblin shut them down twice in succession, and it was back to more Northview ball control until the 30th minute.
Then the Titans quickly drew 3 yellow cards, on fouls by Northview’s Gulia and Stephen Glover, and what appeared to be a call on Sam Bevan for delay of a Roswell free kick. After the plastic was put away (for only a few minutes, it turns out), Mario Perazza turned up the heat on the Roswell defense, forcing them to clear over the touch line. Then Stille found Jeff Scannella at 10 yards, whose shot was blocked. Northview swarmed on a close-in attack, with Brandon McCollum finally driving the ball in for a GOAL and a 1-0 Northview lead at 34 minutes. It proved to be the game winner.
Tanner Chamblin stopped a 3 on 3 attack in the 36th minute. As the Titans came downfield again, the Hornets fouled. Bevan’s free kick from 40 yards was cleared for a Titan throw-in, and as play continued, Jacob Lee found Jeremy Stille at 25 yards, who crossed for Andrew Johnson. The Hornets blocked the ball out for a corner, but before the game could restart, the trailing official’s flag became a little Bambi tail, flickering back and forth 70 yards away across midfield. After the officials conferred, Stephen Gulia found himself under an outstretched red card, and the Titans found themselves a man down for the remaining 42 minutes of the match.
The Titans stepped up in the second half, and made playing a man down look like just a variation on controlling the ball with eleven players. They out-hustled the Hornets for the duration, allowing only a few serious challenges to the Titan net.
As Northview’s Johnson, Mehrjerdian and Glover teamed up for sustained midfield ball control, the Titans kept finding opportunities to attack. The Hornets kept finding the need to push from behind when Scannella got by them, giving Northview free kicks from midrange. Finally, despite his good-natured “I’m sorry ref” pats on the shoulder after repeated fouls, the Hornets #8 was shown a yellow card for his infraction. Bevan’s free kick in to the box was for naught this time, as the Titans were called for pushing.
Stephen Glover made the next offensive move, with a shot from 30 yards, saved by the Hornets keeper inside the right post. Then following the next Hornet foul on Scannella, Johnson got a shot from 30 yards that went wide left.
Perhaps Roswell had watched one too many Emeril Live shows, because after a Titan foul gave the Hornets a free kick at 25 yards, they went “BAM” on keeper Will Whorton who leaped to save the incoming shot. The referee chose the saffron colored card (yellow), not the chili-pepper (red), apparently deciding the foul wasn’t spicy enough.
Andrew Cameron worked hard for the ball in the 60th minute at midfield to stop a Hornet try, and this led to Scannella getting the ball and setting up Cameron at 30 yards. Cameron dribbled in, circled out, and found Perazza on the right at 15 yards, whose shot was saved. Cameron next found Glover on a throw in from midfield, and Glover uncorked a shot from 25 yards, but missed to the right.
The Hornets did manage to get close twice more. In the 61st minute, they managed a weak shot from 25 yards, and the Titan keeper made the easy save. Later in the 74th minute, the Hornets maneuvered two men in front of the goal, and on a pass in from 30 yards, a point-blank, eyeball to eyeball header by Roswell gave Will Whorton a test on reaction time. He passed the test, and preserved the 1-0 lead.
The Titans’ tremendous work in the second half in controlling the ball and shutting down the Hornets at midfield was rewarded with one more opportunity in the 79th minute. Jeff Scannella circled in on the left side and was tripped in the penalty area. Jeff buried the penalty kick -- the final distancing GOAL that put it out of reach for Roswell -- and the Titans came away with a 2-0 shutout victory.
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