Published: August 16, 2008 11:21 pm         

Valley teams get jammin' start to soccer seasons

TERRE HAUTE — The season-opening boys and girls high school soccer jamboree is an opportunity for fans to view their team’s entire rosters in game situations. For coaches, it’s a chance to see where their teams stand.

Predicting sectional outcomes from jamboree results is delusional at best. But many fans probably departed with an impression there was plenty of balance among the Big Four schools on display at Terre Haute North on Saturday.

On the boys side, Terre Haute South blanked West Vigo 2-0 — the first of four 20-minute matchups for both boys and girls teams. South freshman Nic Henderson supplied both the goals, the first a short penalty kick, the second bull rushing the ball into the goal.

Terre Haute North followed with a 3-2 edging of Northview. The Knights jumped to a 2-0 lead, but the Patriots rallied with three straight late goals from John Welch, Cody Orazco and Ryan Thomas.

After a 15-minute break, the excitement picked up as North met South, with the Patriots prevailing 2-0. North’s Andy Khudayev scored on a free kick, later Luke Lakstins scored on a breakaway.

Finally, West Vigo jumped to a 3-0 lead over Northview, but the Knights rallied to complete a 3-3 tie in a physical matchup. Sophomore Andrew Kump had a goal and assist for the Vikings.

Also for the Vikes, Lennard Zuhlker, a senior, scored a header goal off a corner kick by Kump — later incurring a blow to the hip with 3.7 second left in the game.

“We’d been working on set plays, and in practice the results were not so good,” assessed North boys coach John Welch. “But in the game it went pretty well. We played well, maintained possession and had good communication. We did what we wanted to accomplish.”

“It took a little too long for us to get things together,” lamented South boys coach Eric Graves talking on his team’s matchup with North. “We started to get it going in the last 10 minutes, but by that time we had dug too big a hole. But games like this are good to let us know what we need to work on in practice.”

“I was happy with what I saw … I think we surprised teams with how well we played,” stated West Vigo boys coach Juan Montanez. “They know we’ll give them a good game. I think we’ll have a better season this year.”

“I was comfortable with [our effort],” added Northview boys coach Don Bryan. “We needed the game action to see what things we need to work on in practice on Monday … and because we play North on Tuesday. It was a good experience for our kids.”

The day kicked off with the girls jamboree. In the first game, South completely dominated in the West Vigo zone, but the two teams still battled to a 0-0 deadlock.

In game two, North dominated behind the strong play of Kelly Meggs’ two early goals, blanking Northview 2-0.

After a brief intermission, sophomore Alexis Penwell scored all three goals for South as they topped North 3-1. This match was tied 1-1, until Penwell was hit in the mouth by the ball. She responded with two goals within 16 seconds in the final two minutes.

In the girls’ finale, West Vigo scored on a goal by Chandra Cortez with 36.9 seconds remaining for a 1-0 victory over Northview.

“Obviously against North, we played with a little more enthusiasm,” said South girls coach Dave Drake. “West Vigo did a very good job. They’ve got a young team. The same thing with North, they have some good freshmen. As the year goes along, they’re going to get better and better.

“We’ve got experience with 18 seniors. We have a few nice freshmen too that are getting better. We had an assist from one of them up front, Rachel Ring.”

“Most importantly, we had a good time,” commented North girls coach Emily Knight. “I’m really pleased with where we were today. Kelly [Meggs] did superb and she had some support from Brooke Humphrey, Caitlin Wulf, Molly McKee … the front line looks really good thia year.”

“I was really impressed … the girls played hard,” stated West Vigo girls coach Ashley Luken. “This gives us things to work on, which is what a jamboree is all about. Our numbers [of players] are up. The girls are really wanting to play.”

“Today was a good day,” concluded Northview girls coach Tony Alstott. “We had a bunch of girls that haven’t played together except in practice. It was good to play against somebody else … see some different moves, offense, defense dynamics.”



Boys

Terre Haute South 2, West Vigo 0

THS goals — Nick Henderson 2.



Terre Haute North 3, Northview 2

THN goals — John Welch, Cody Orazco, Ryan Thomas.

Northview goals — Ken Wright, Evan Deal.



Terre Haute North 2, Terre Haute South 0

THN goals — Andy Khudayev, Luke Lakstins.



West Vigo 3, Northview 3

West Vigo goals — Brice McFaddin, Lennard Zuhlker, Andrew Kump.

Northview goals — Brandon Hathaway, Ken Wright, Michael Ball.

Girls

Terre Haute South 0, West Vigo 0

no scoring



Terre Haute North 2, Northview 0

THN goals — Kelly Meggs 2.



Terre Haute South 3, Terre Haute North 1

THS goals — Alexis Penwell 3.

THN goal — Molly McKee



West Vigo 1, Northview 0

WV goal — Chandra Cortez