Boys soccer: Blue Demons strike early against Big Reds
CENTERVILLE — In basketball, it's called a full-court press. The Albia boys soccer team may have rolled out a full-pitch press on Monday against Centerville. Much like in basketball, the Blue Demons made it tough for the Big Reds to connect on any pass even from their own end line forcing the type of turnovers that resulted in quick strikes at the net.
As a result, Albia jumped out to an early ...
CENTERVILLE — In basketball, it's called a full-court press. The Albia boys soccer team may have rolled out a full-pitch press on Monday against Centerville. Much like in basketball, the Blue Demons made it tough for the Big Reds to connect on any pass even from their own end line forcing the type of turnovers that resulted in quick strikes at the net.
As a result, Albia jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Blake Wirtjes deflected a goal kick into the net in just the second minute of the match, giving the Blue Demons the first of six goals in the opening half in a 7-0 South Central Conference win more than doubling the team's total number of goals in the first five matches of the season. "That was a pretty interesting start to the match.
I don't think I've seen anything like that happen before," Albia head boys soccer coach Matt Johnson said. "We've talked a lot about that, when a team is playing short, we've got to be able to got 100-percent right at them. We try to do a high press and keep the ball down in the area where we can force mistakes and capitalize on those mistakes.