With only 11 players on their bench, the Riverview/Cornerstone Royals had difficulties controlling an offensive burst from the Vanier Vikings.
“People were tired by the second half,” stated Jeff Kitts, head coach for the Royals. “The wind didn’t really play a factor in the second half because everyone was tired.”
The Vikings were powerful on offence, controlling and dictating the pace of the game in an 11-3 victory in high school boys soccer action on Wednesday afternoon at Gutheridge Field.
“We tried to move the ball down the sidelines and try to maintain our spacing so that we could exploit their gaps on defence and it worked out a lot better. The guys saw the gaps a lot better and were able to pass through them better,” said Jaysen Tomashweski, head coach for Vanier. ““It is not the objective to shoot the lights out of another team.”
Albert Brown led the way for the Vikings with a hat trick, while Daniel DeGirolamo and Nicolas DeGirolamo each added two goals. Braydon Tomac, Spencer Krawczyk, Kale Andrews and Corwyn Tomashweski scored single goals.
The Royals had two goals scored by Tyson Pinfold and Dez Morehouse added another. Their keeper, Brennan Goski was strong in net for the Royals, taking away a dozen possible goal opportunities by blocking shots or making saves.
“In the first half we struggled and we sunk back into a defensive shell. That really takes away from our offensive opportunities because you have everyone in the defensive zone. At times, we had six people back in defence, so then we had 4-on-8 in the offensive end,” explained Kitts. “In the second half, we just worked on pushing the ball up more and more support on offence and it started to pay off.”
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
