Print Story Email Story Discuss Story (3)

Recommend ( 0 )

News-Sun photo by DAN HOEHNE A hair-raising, high-flying collision was seen on this attempt to control the ball by Sebring's Troy Talbert and Lake Placid's Santiago Herrera in the Blue Streaks 2-1 win Monday night.

click any photo to view this story's photo gallery

Related Links

advertisement

published: Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Defensive Battle Goes To Streaks

By DONALD RIDGEWAY

LAKE PLACID - If you are a sports fan, you have to love rivalries.

Monday night Lake Placid and Sebring tussled beneath the lights at Roger Scarborough Field for a soccer match to be remembered.

Rivalries as intense as this one are bound to be full of physical play and this was no exception as both teams combined for five yellow card violations.

Both squads had excellent defensive efforts, limiting shots on goal and easy passes in the box, but it was the Blue Steaks that broke through with a 2-1 win.

The defensive effort for both teams was so good that it took more than 57 minutes before the first ball sailed into the net.

"I thought our defense played very well. They have been shutting everyone down so far this year," Sebring head coach Tim Boulay said. "We have some things that we need to tighten up and our guys need to start talking more."

Both squads had a handful of shots on goal in the first forty minutes of competition but both goalies came up big to keep things scoreless at the half.

The second half started much like the first, with both teams playing solid defense and giving few opportunities to get the offense involved.

Lake Placid had one of their biggest chances to score in the 65th minute as Antonio Torres booted the ball on a corner kick that was headed by Ricardo Jaramillo but missed the goal by inches.

A couple minutes later, the Blue Streaks got on the scoreboard as Jazan Jimenez laid a nice pass in front of Washley Jean who blasted the ball past the outstretched arms of the diving goalkeeper.

With less than five minutes left in the game Lake Placid had a couple chances to tie the game up but Torres kicked the ball over the goal keeping the Sebring lead at 1-0.

As the game reached the final minutes, Derek Drummond got open from 40 yards out and blasted a laser shot into the right side of the net to push the score to 2-0.

Lake Placid responded with less than two minutes to go as Torres put a corner kick into play in front of the goalkeeper where it was knocked in on a well-timed header by Jorge Medina.

The score was too little too late for the Dragons as the game soon ended.

Both defenses managed the game well, holding the offenses near the middle of the field most of the night.

Jesse Ouverson had a strong night for the Blue Streaks as he finished the game with six saves while his counterpart Ernesto Jimenez of Lake Placid closed out the contest with eight saves.

With the win the Blue Streaks move to 3-0 on the year while the Dragons are 0-1.

"I thought our defense played very well. We were worried about our defense coming into the game but they stepped up," Lake Placid head coach Joshua Virkler said. "We had really good play from Kyle Thompson and Ernesto Jimenez. I can't say how happy I am at the play of Jesses Orozco who stepped up against one of their best players."