Senior Reise’s 1st career goal gives unbeaten Falcons win

Score is first the Seahawks have given up this season

After an evenly played first half, the Severna Park boys soccer team figured out a way to keep the ball in South River’s end for most of the rest of the game Tuesday.

The Falcons’ chore from there was even more difficult: Find a way to score a goal against a Seahawks defense that had yet to yield one in winning their first four games.

Their persistence was rewarded. With 11 minutes to play, Falcons senior defender Daniel Reise scored his first goal in his four years with the program, sending No. 6 Severna Park to a hard-earned 1-0 victory over No. 11 South River at Kinder Farm Park.

The Falcons improved to 6-0 overall and 2-0 in Anne Arundel County play, and the Seahawks fell to 4-1 and 1-1.

The game’s only goal came on the Falcons’ seventh corner kick, and it was precisely executed. Junior midfielder Keaton Bathras served a ball in to the near post for senior Scott Huntley, who flicked it across to the far post. Reise was there, using the inside of his right foot to sneak a shot past Seahawks junior goalie Kyle Berkowitz from 5 yards away.

“We had to stay really tough in the second half,” Reise said. “The goal started with a really good cross and Scott was able to flick it on really well. He actually told me to go to the far post at the beginning of the play, so I just went there and it opened up for me to get it in.”

Both teams had good opportunities in the first half to create scoring chances, but neither could break through.

For the Seahawks, Isaiah Jensen had a shot go just high midway through the half, then Danny Peterson hit a heavy shot from 20 yards with five minutes left that Falcons goalie Sam Farrell was able to handle.

In the second half, their chances

became scarce with the Falcons able to control the flow of the game. Acombination of resilient play on defense from the Seahawks and shots from the Falcons going high or wide kept the game scoreless until Reise was able to find the mark. Severna Park coach Ryan Parisi liked how his team stayed on course.

“I think we just took care of the ball better [in the second half ], just kept fighting through and working hard,” he said. South River coach Jeff “Vincent does a great job with them, they’re a very well-organized and tough team and they’ve given up very few goals for a reason. They make it difficult. So you need to work hard, keep control of the ball and get a couple lucky bounces and we were able to get some opportunities.”

Down 1-0, the Seahawks sent more players forward to get an equalizer, but it never came, with the Falcons defending well against a corner kick with two minutes to play.

Vincent gave the Falcons credit for pressing the issue in the second half, and also saw uncharacteristic play from his Seahawks.

“I don’t know. One of focuses has been conditioning and it seemed like we just got tired in that second half — early as well — so I think that was the main thing,” Vincent said.