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.
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