North Point boys soccer edges Patuxent
Late Nunn goal lifts North Point boys soccer by Patuxent
Through its first two games, North Point’s boys soccer team played relatively well, but just could not seem to put together 80 full minutes. The little lapses cost the Eagles, as they dropped both decisions by two goals, losing to Huntingtown and Northern.
“That’s what we talk about. In soccer, it can be two or three minutes that change an 80-minute game,” North Point head coach Doug DeCook said. “You can play 78 great minutes and two minutes can lose you the game 2, 3, 4-0.”
Against the visiting Patuxent Panthers in a third straight Southern Maryland Athletic Conference nondivision game, the Eagles moved in the right direction. Mason Nunn scored with roughly two minutes left to play to lift North Point to its first victory of the year by a 2-1 count in what was an entertaining battle throughout.
“it was exciting,” Nunn said of the game-winning sequence, which came off of a throw-in. “Adtyan [Murphy] flicked it to me. I stepped to the ball
because there was a defender right in front of me and I just hit it.”
After tasting defeat twice in as many games to open the season, the win was certainly a welcome outcome for North Point (1-2 overall).
“We felt like in our first two games we had chances but the chips didn’t fall our way,” DeCook said. “This game, a typical SMAC game, it gets down to the second half still 1-1, a real close game that can go either way. Then one of our sophomores, Mason, got on the end of one that bounced through the box and we finally finished one.
“We were getting in on goal, they were getting in on goal. It was a pretty back and forth game. Give credit to Patuxent, it was a good game for them. I think we stuck with our tactics and our game plan.”
The Eagles opened the scoring nearly three-quarters of the way through the first half when Austin Weeks took a feed from Devon Douglas and slipped a shot past Patuxent goalkeeper Brian King.
“Devon curled it through,” Weeks said of the play. “I saw it coming and shot it.”
Less, than 10 minutes later, Patuxent (1-2) answered when Logan Miller put one in the back of the net to knot the score at 1.
Through the second half, and the entire game, both teams had many opportunities. King came up big with a couple of saves on point-blank scoring chances as the second half wore on, but Nunn finally got one through to give the hosts the win.
The Panthers were playing their second game in as many nights, having lost 4-0 at South River, of Anne Arundel County, on Monday night.
“It was a very physical game. North Point has come a long way in the last couple years, has gotten a lot better,” Patuxent head coach Paul Gray said. “We came off a back-to-back game. We played last night and played tonight, so we’re tired.
“Playing a back-to-back game I thought we played really well. We had our chances. We hit two posts, probably could have been up but we weren’t. I’m so proud of the boys for fighting back.”
Scheduled to host Huntingtown on Thursday in a SMAC Chesapeake Division contest, the Panthers had been making positive strides through three games, according to Gray.
“I’m very pleased with the play,” he said. “We just need that one one extra pass to connect and we’ll be fine.”
North Point was scheduled to travel to McDonough for a SMAC Potomac Division game on Thursday night. With a win under their collective belt, the Eagles figured to go into the match feeling pretty good.
“The boys are always still confident, but those losses, you always second-guess what you’re doing when you don’t get the result at the end even though most of the things are going right.,” DeCook said.
Weeks added, “It’s a big confidence booster for the team. Everybody is happy about this win. Hopefully we can start a winning streak going into teams like Leonardtown and La Plata.”