The Saints traveled to Kingswood Regional High School to play the Knights. Since there is only one soccer field at the school the JV team played after the Varsity game. Seth Olsen and Joe Gardiner were up from the freshmen team for some additional playing time with the JV team.
Game Captains Sean Waters, Tom Carroll and Mark Miller went out to represent the team.
The Saints started out with a defense of Matt Roginski as Stopper, Nick Blunier and Tom Gibney as Fullbacks and Mark Miller as Sweeper. Midfielders Bryan Hennigan, Justin Guilbert, Jamie and Jerry Phontharaksa. Tom Carroll and Owen " Taco" Cook as strikers. Sean Waters was guarding the net for St. Thomas.
This was the amount of light at the start of the game.
I have
lightened the photos I took so you could see better, the referees called the
game early, but it was the right call, to be honest you couldn't see across the
field when they ended the game
At 2:14 into the game Carroll sent a pass to Guilbert who put it by the Kingswood keeper to put the Saints up 1-0.
Around the 4 minute mark Cook had a break on goal when the Kingswood keeper dove head first to take the ball from him. His face hit Cook's foot more from his dive than Cook's kick. The keeper wasn't hurt serious but had to leave the game. Hopefully he'll learn how to slide feet first for the save next time.
At 6:50 Carroll assisted Cook on a goal that put St. Thomas up 2-0.
At that point the team was changed to Peter Shwaegerle and Linas Kenter at Strikers. The midfield was Taylor "T-Mac" MacDonald, Ryan Price, Brett Snyder and Collin McBride. The defense was changed to Keith Hallock at Stopper, Peter Bergeron and Andy Stone at Fullbacks.
Up by 2 goals at 14:20 into the game coach changed up the team to allow players to try other positions. Jamie Phontharaksa went in at sweeper. Jerry Phontharaksa and Guilbert went in at fullbacks. Hennigan went in at Stopper. Seth Olsen and Joe Gardiner went in at midfield with Roginski and Gibney. Miller and Blunier went in as strikers.
Miller at
striker.
The new defense clears it out.
At the 22 minute mark Miller sent a beautiful cross pass to Blunier who hit the far post with it.
The Saints controlled the midfield with some great passing.
Blunier and Miller break after a through ball.
The Defense was up to midfield keeping the play in the Knights end.
At the 23 minute mark the team was changed again. Stone went in at sweeper, Cook and Carroll were fullbacks, Hallock was stopper. The midfield was Shwaegerle, Price, MacDonald and Bergeron. Snyder and Kenter were up front as strikers.
The half was called at 30 minutes and the team switched sides without a half time break because of the fading light.
St. Thomas was up 2-0 at the half.
They had out shot the Knights 19-1.
The team on the field stayed in to start the second half.
2 minutes in the team was changed to Miller and McBride at strikers, Olsen, Gardiner, Gibney and Blunier at midfield. The defense was Roginski at stopper, Guilbert and Jerry Phontharaksa at fullbacks and Jamie Phontharaksa at sweeper.
One minute later at 3:02 Kingswood took a goal kick that was intercepted by McBride who made a move on the defender and put one in the back of the net for his first high school goal. St. Thomas was now up 3-0.
Snyder was subbed in for McBride at the next opportunity, coach was trying to get players on the field who hadn't scored a goal this season.
At 7:25 Gibney scored on an assist from Blunier to put the Saints up 4-0
Play continued as the sky got darker. From the bench we could hardly see the players down at the Kingswood end of the field. The Referee called the game because of darkness at around 12:20.
The game ended with St. Thomas up 4-0. The Saints out shot Kingswood 22-1.
St. Thomas will travel to Con-Val on Friday, if the weather can hold off.