10/15/2012: Conneaut 1 - Kennedy Catholic 0

10/15/2012: Conneaut 1 - Kennedy Catholic 0 
CONNEAUT MEN'S SOCCER BLOG
By Ryan Kozlowski, Conneaut Men's Assistant Coach

Kennedy Catholic came into this contest with a 12-1-1 record, while Conneaut's up and down season had them at a respectable 7-5-2.

With that in mind, many probably wouldn't have pegged the Conneaut Eagles traveling to Kennedy Catholic and putting up a win with the season that the other Eagles (of the golden variety) were having.

Yet a total team effort by every Conneaut Eagle that stepped on KC's soggy field led to Conneaut's best performance of the season.

Tanner Williams, Tommy Mullen, Josh Betts, and Chris Toth were resolute in defense.

Cole Snodgrass, Brandon Jackson, and Ethan Mona challenged in midfield.

While a striker triumvirate of Richard Moore, Tyler Bone, and Tanner Houck created havoc by pressing the back four of Kennedy with speed and pressure.

Overall, Conneaut had 10 shots on goal to Kennedy Catholic's 8, and the Conneaut Eagles had the better chances while KC rarely threatened.

Nevertheless, goalkeeper Nick Stockton had to be on the top of his game at moments and his clear outs to the strikers were spot on.

Conneaut pressed and pressed, and worked the over the top ball, but couldn't find a breakthrough.

Until the 63rd minute, as Conneaut's Tanner Williams pressed up the right side and then switched a beautiful ball to a wide open Cole Snodgrass who snuck unmarked on a back post run.

Snodgrass trapped the ball..
Then there was a second or two pause on the field..
As no one in the Conneaut or Kennedy Catholic camps could probably believe how open Snodgrass was, let alone Snodgrass..
Then it was just Snodgrass vs. KC's goalkeeper Cianci..
And Cole ripped a shot into the right back post and wheeled off in celebration.

Yet there were still 27 minutes to play and that's where not only the defense but all 11 players on the field for Conneaut stepped up and played team defense, won the 50-50 balls, and killed clock with clever play after clever play in the offensive third.

Kennedy Catholic's coaches, bench, and fans pleaded and pushed their eleven for an equalizer, but quite simply it wasn't their day; it was Conneaut's.

"This is the level of play our team is capable of when all eleven put their minds to a task. Unfortunately that desire by all eleven to win the 50-50 balls, to put pressure on the defense, and to challenge the other team, instead of laying off, hasn't always been there this season.

If we play like this we can beat 12-1 teams and compete with anyone. Hopefully the players put that in their back pocket and use that to inspire them the rest of this season," stated Coach Kozlowski.

With the win Conneaut improved to 8-5-2 overall and 5-3-1 in conference, while Kennedy Catholic dropped to 12-2-1 and 6-2-1 in conference.

Starters: GK- Nick Stockton, LB- Cole Snodgrass, CB- Josh Betts, SW- Tommy Mullen, RB- Tanner Williams, CM- Ethan Mona, CM- Brandon Jackson, LM- Richard Moore, RM- Brandon Moss, ST- Tyler Bone, ST- Tanner Houck

Substitutes: Chris Toth, Mark McLean, Luke Graham, Nick Moss

10/13/2012: Eagles Player Of The Week- Rich Moore (Week 6)

10/13/2012: Eagles Player Of The Week- Rich Moore (Week 6)

Richard Moore only had 1 assist to his name before his last four games; but in his last four games Moore has 4 goals and 2 assists.

Moore really got going this week against Sharpsville single handily keeping the Eagles in the game by being involved in all three goals, with two strikes and an assist.

Because of his play in the Sharpsville game, Moore is awarded with the player of week 6 award.

10/11/2012: Conneaut 3 - Sharpsville 3

10/11/2012: Conneaut 3 - Sharpsville 3
CONNEAUT MEN'S SOCCER BLOG
By Ryan Kozlowski, Conneaut Men's Assistant Coach

Last time Conneaut played Sharpsville at home they won comfortably 4-nil.

Therefore, Sharpsville appeared to be the perfect opponent to get the season back on track after losses to Grove City and Sharpsville.

The (7-5-1) Eagles got off to a great start when Richard Moore's cross found Brandon Moss in the six yard box a minute and 36 seconds in.

Moss stabbed at the ball and found the back of the net.

Eight minutes later, Moore would get on the end of freshman Brandon Haylett's pass (for Haylett's first point on the season and in his career) to make it 2-0.

Things were looking good for the Eagles and for interim Head Coach Ryan Kozlowski; as it appeared the Eagles were well on their way to another 4-nil (or higher) win against Sharpsville.

Then the Eagles defense and goalkeeping got a little lax, allowing a corner kick header and free kick goal later in the first half to allow (2-11) Sharpsville to climb back into the game at 2-2.

Coach Kozlowski kept with the game plan, and continued to keep with it in the second half as Sharpsville converted another dead ball opportunity, with another corner kick header.

"Why Sharpsville got back into the game came to two simple things, the defense wasn't winning the ball battle in their own box and the goalkeeper wasn't winning the ball in his own box. The offense created chances, the defense created a few for the other team," said Coach Kozlowski.

Down 3-2 Conneaut continued to battle and Richard Moore, with 25 minutes remaining in the second half, was once again the man turning the screws.

Moore raced down the right wing with the ball and fired a perfect upper 90 shot into the net to make it 3-3.

Then a few minutes later Moore won a penalty in the box after being tripped up by a Sharpsville defender, here was the Eagles chance to save what should have been an easy win.

Moore raised his hand to take it and Coach Kozlowski figured with two goals and an assist on the day Moore would be the man for the job.

Moore blasted it high.

Conneaut would create chance after chance for the final 20 minutes of the contest, out shooting Sharpsville by a 25-11 margin, but the opportunity to win the game had already passed.

Conneaut would go on to tie 3-3 improving to a 7-5-2 record, 4-3-1 in conference.

Starters: GK- Nick Stockton, LB- Cole Snodgrass, CB- Tanner Williams, SW- Tommy Mullen, RB- Brandon Haylett, RM- Brandon Moss, CM- Brandon Jackson, CM- Ethan Mona, LM- Luke Graham, ST- Tanner Dittrich, ST- Richard Moore

Substitutes: Nick Moss, Chris Toth, Pete Egan, Kyle Ledford, Mark McLean

Notables: * Richard Moore has 4 goals and 2 assists in the past 4 games showing a late season rise in his form

*Chris Toth played excellent in the second half at right back for Brandon Haylett

*Mark McLean and Tanner Dittrich almost scored on many occasions during a 10 minute portion of the second half.

10/9/2012: Mercer 6- Conneaut 0

10/9/2012: Mercer 6- Conneaut 0
CONNEAUT MEN'S SOCCER BLOG
By Ryan Kozlowski, Conneaut Men's Assistant Coach

With starters Tyler Bone and Tanner Houck out of action due to injury, Conneaut Head Coach Alan Wise decided to move Nick Stockton out of net for more skill in midfield.

In replacement, freshman Brandon Haylett got his first start in net for Conneaut and he couldn't have had a tougher opponent at 12-1 Mercer.

Conneaut went down the field to start the game and had a scoring opportunity right away, and then after that could barely muster a pass or two together as Mercer's conditioning, passing, and movement tore apart the Eagles.

This game against Mercer wasn't like Kennedy Catholic or Grove City where the scorelines gave the opposition more than they deserved, Mercer had 90 percent of the possession and scoring opportunities.

Conneaut without two of their midfield starters were powerless to limit Mercer, but did play better football in the second half only allowing two goals and gaining more possession.

However, a 6-0 defeat at the hands of Mercer drops Conneaut to 7-5-1 overall, and 4-3 in Region 1.

More alarmingly Conneaut were outscored in their last two outings by a 11-1 margin; as it appears Conneaut either plays really well or gets blown out this season.

They'll try to right the ship at Sharpsville on Thursday.

10/8/2012: Eagles Player Of The Week- Tyler Bone (Week 5)

10/8/2012: Eagles Player Of The Week- Tyler Bone (Week 5)

Despite already receiving the honor in Week 1, Tyler Bone's 94th minute goal at Commodore Perry in 2OT was vital, in a game that Conneaut desperately needed to win.

On the week, Bone finished with a goal against Commodore Perry and three goals and an assist against West Middlesex.

Richard Moore with two goals and an assist on the week, Tanner Dittrich with a hat trick against West Middlesex, and Brandon Jackson with four assists and a goal were all a close second for the honor...

And would've easily of won the award in weeks with slimmer pickings...

10/6/2012: Grove City 5- Conneaut 1

10/6/2012: Grove City 5- Conneaut 1
CONNEAUT MEN'S SOCCER BLOG
By Ryan Kozlowski, Conneaut Men's Assistant Coach

Grove City, who were struggling in Region 2 at the time, came out firing against Conneaut scoring two minutes in.

"It really set us back. We had such high hopes that this game would be the one where we would elevate ourselves to another level; as it goes in soccer that didn't happen. But, you can't chuck out the game plan right away and you have to let things play out for a bit," was the rationale according to Coach Kozlowski.

Unfortunately the 3-4-3 employed against Commodore Perry and West Middlesex (the possible savior for the season) wasn't working out as swimmingly against Grove City.

Yet as the first half went on Conneaut played themselves back into the game and grew in confidence.

There resoluteness was rewarded 20 minutes in when Richard Moore's cross found the head of substitute Chris Toth, for his only goal of the year and Conneaut's only goal from a corner kick or free kick all year.

Converting in such a fashion to make it 1-1, from the corner kick, appeared to be a positive sign of things to come in the game.

Yet, once again, optimism would be punished; as Grove City caught Conneaut's thin defensive line on the counterattack and scored to make it 2-1, with four minutes remaining in the half.

A rousing half time talk, pleading to the Conneaut boys that they were still in this game at 2-1, could not lift the side's spirits.

While losing major contributors Tyler Bone and Tanner Houck for the second half to injury certainly didn't help.

A tepid second half performance led to three more Grove City goals to make it 5-1, surprisingly Grove City scored 5 goals from 5 shots on goal.

Conneaut could only muster 3 shots on goal and only one goal to show from it.

The side left frustrated dropping to 7-4-1 overall, thinking of what could've been.

10/3/2012: Conneaut 11- West Middlesex 0

10/3/2012: Conneaut 11- West Middlesex 0
CONNEAUT MEN'S SOCCER BLOG
By Ryan Kozlowski, Conneaut Men's Assistant Coach

West Middlesex, without a win all season, are that team that you can pad the stats against.

The Conneaut boys at 6-3-1 overall, 3-2 in conference did just that.

Eight different players scored for Conneaut on their way to a 11-0 rout.

Tyler Bone collected a hat trick and an assist 25 minutes into the game, and then was rewarded with a rest for the next 55 minutes to prepare an ailing back for Grove City.

Brandon Jackson, the assist machine on the team, collected four more assists and a goal.

More importantly, offensive puzzle pieces who have been struggling production wise got their names on the board too.

Tanner Dittrich got a hat trick as well and Richard Moore expected to be a big puzzle piece, registered his first two goals in game 11 to go with his two assists on the season.

Cody Zinz and Josh Betts also found net at the beginning and end of the second half.

Brandon Jackson as previously mentioned had four assists, to go along with his production Tanner Houck, Tyler Bone, Brandon Moss, Pete Egan, Kyle Ledford, and Luke Graham each had one.

After a rough loss to KC last week, two positive victories against Commordore Perry and West Middlesex has Conneaut back at 7-3-1 overall and 4-2 in conference.

An important test comes up on Saturday as Conneaut faces off against fellow double AA side Grove City.

Starting lineup: GK- Nick Stockton, CB- Josh Betts, RB- Cody Zinz, LB- Tanner Williams, RM- Brandon Moss, LM- Cole Snodgrass, CM- Brandon Jackson, CM- Tanner Houck, LW- Richard Moore, RW- Tanner Dittrich, ST- Tyler Bone

Substitutes: Brandon Haylett, Luke Graham, Pete Egan, Mark McLean, Kyle Ledford, Chase Kean, Zach Baker, Nick Moss, Austin Pruitt, Josiah Uplinger

Shots on goal: Conneaut 30, West Middlesex 4

10/1/2012: Conneaut 1 - Commodore Perry 0

10/1/2012: Conneaut 1 - Commodore Perry 0
CONNEAUT MEN'S SOCCER BLOG
By Ryan Kozlowski, Men's Assistant Coach

Losing their two pivotal conference games against Mercer (2-0) and Kennedy Catholic (5-0) in the prior two weeks, the Conneaut boys couldn't afford to lose more ground away to Commodore Perry.

Conneaut came into the match at their lowest conference standing, down to a tie for third at (2-2 in conference, 5-3-1 overall).

Commodore Perry also sat in third at 2-2 and were looking to banish any hope for Conneaut to reach the playoffs, or compete in the top half of the conference, by using their home field to their advantage.

On a soggy field, the Conneaut boys were prepared for a battle of attrition; and despite an edge in possession at 65 to 35 and out shooting Perry eventually 16 to 8, Conneaut struggled to get through the back line of the Panthers for 94 minutes.

Conneaut's best chances in the usual 80 minutes of contiguous play came early on, with a couple break away's that were flubbed wide and a hit post, but Conneaut could not break through.

As the game progressed into the second half, no matter who Conneaut put up top, they couldn't find space to exploit. Every single striker line consisting of Tyler Bone, Brandon Jackson, Tanner Houck, Tanner Williams, Richard Moore, Tanner Dittrich were all finding their path to goal blocked.

But, as the second half progressed it became quite obvious to the coaching staff who was the stronger side and who was putting more pressure on who's goal; as Commodore Perry were just hanging on in their defensive third and Perry's counterattacks became less and less as the second half continued to inch towards overtime.

Out of Perry's 8 shots on goal, 6 of them came in the first half.

Around the 70th minute, an exasperated Conneaut Men's Head Coach Alan Wise conferred with his assistant Ryan Kozlowski, "you got any ideas? because I'm out of them," after Wise tried everything in his bag of tricks.

Kozlowski mulled it over for a few minutes and came back to Wise..

"Were getting road blocked down the middle, our two strikers are too central and it's making easy work for Perry's four defenders. We need to spread them out, plus they haven't given us much to worry about defensively since early on. Let's go to a 3-4-3, Bone in the middle, Rich and T.D's speed out wide and spread them out."

After the Conneaut boy's were able to work out the kink's of the formation transition, Tanner Dittrich almost scored on a back post breakaway that skimmed wide in the 76th minute.

Then Tyler Bone got an open chance from twenty out in the 79th minute, but couldn't convert.

The pressure would compound as the whistle blew for overtime, as Tyler Bone and Richard Moore both found themselves on unconverted breakaways midway through the 1st OT of 10 minutes.

However, it was just a matter of time before the levy would break for Commodore Perry, and with six minutes remaining in the final overtime, Conneaut were able to once against spread the Perry defense.

A pass by Jackson out wide went to an unmarked Tyler Bone, in the 94th minute, who was able to run in uncontested to goal and apply the finish.

Elation ensued from Conneaut players, parents, and coaches as the Eagles improved to 6-3-1 overall, 3-2 in conference and had bottom dwellers West Middlesex next on the schedule.

9/29/2012: Eagles Player of the Week- Tanner Houck (Week 4)

9/29/2012: Player of the Week- Tanner Houck (Week 4)

Senior midfielder turned (for this week) striker, Tanner Houck, had a very productive game against Sharpsville registering two goals and an assist in the first half; being involved in three goals on the way to a 4-0 victory at home against Sharpsville.

Houck missed out on a hat trick against Sharpsville with a few close calls, including a missed breakaway and a hit post.

Against Kennedy Catholic on Wednesday in a 5-nil defeat, Houck had a couple misses early on that would've changed that game as well.

9/27/2012: Kennedy Catholic 5- Conneaut 0

9/27/2012: Kennedy Catholic 5- Conneaut 0
CONNEAUT MEN'S SOCCER BLOG
By Ryan Kozlowski, Men's Assistant Coach

After a 4-0-1 start to the season, the Conneaut boys stumbled to two straight defeats against Mercer (2-0) and Saegertown (6-0), after a win on Monday against Sharpsville (4-0) the Conneaut boys were hoping that their season was back on track.

Another win, against Kennedy Catholic, on Wednesday could really get Conneaut back online in the conference and playoff chase.

But, against Kennedy Catholic, the Conneaut boys would have a fight on their hands..

And oddly enough Kennedy Catholic would slink off to a 5-nil win in the end; despite both teams being even on 9 shots in the contest and having about 50 percent possession between the two.

In the first half, it took a good 35 minutes for Kennedy Catholic to reach the breakthrough. As KC's goalkeeper Cianci punted the ball to his striker line, a quick deflected shot led to a corner.

On the corner, Conneaut failed to pick up their man assignments and challenge for the ball, allowing a KC striker to apply the header finish from only four yards from net.

That would be the story of the day, as Kennedy Catholic would score four of their five goals from either free kicks or corners.

"It was an odd day... You finish with the same amount of shots and possession. But, you end up 5-nil down.

I think we had the better quality chances the first 30 minutes of the game. But, we don't know how to finish them, put that dagger in the opposing team, and that came back to cost us as Catholic grew in confidence as the first half went on," said Assistant Mens Coach Ryan Kozlowski.

"Then we absolutely didn't challenge for headers in our own box in the second half and wonder why were down 3 or 4-nil. Their high school kids and some are going to shy away from a header at midfield perhaps once in a while, can deal with that from time to time, but not in our own box, in the danger area."

With the win, Kennedy Catholic jumps to 3-1 in the conference and 6-1 overall; while Conneaut falls to 2-2 and 5-3-1.

The Conneaut boys will look to rebound against Commodore Perry next Monday.