SEVERNA PARK BOYS SOCCER BEATS ARUNDEL TO STAY PERFECT
Falcons able to keep record perfect by blanking Wildcats
Severna Park senior Jay Pierce found the loose ball around midfield and took off toward goal. The tall, stocky forward rumbled past two midfielders before two more defenders approached.
Outnumbered, Pierce just kept running full-speed ahead, then cut inside, took two big steps and blasted an 18-yard shot at the bottom right corner of the net.
Arundel senior goalkeeper Zane Saab couldn’t control it as the ball slowed down and trickled past the goal line. Junior forward Daniel Carey made sure it found the back of the net, but Pierce made sure everyone knew it was his goal when the press announcer told the crowd Carey had scored.
It was a strike for good measure Tuesday as junior midfielder Gus Bachmann netted what would be the game-winner just 1 minute, 7 seconds into the second half in a 2-0 home win for the undefeated Falcons.
“Which one?” Pierce said with a laugh when asked to break down his run that resulted in his second strike of the season. “I had a couple. I just saw the space and took it. It was just one of those instinctive plays where you see the space and just attack it.
“Coach preaches attacking space, getting forward and he’s always telling me I’ve got the size, got the speed, [so] use it.”
Now more than halfway through its unusual five-game season, Severna Park
is 3-0 and has outscored its opponents by a margin of 14-1.
The Wildcats, who entered Tuesday’s meeting at 2-0, had not allowed any goals while securing a pair of one-goal victories.
In a usual non-coronavirus season that would feature months of competition, at least a dozen regular-season games and playoffs, Pierce is sure this Falcons team would’ve made a deep run, if not win it all, in Class 4A. It’s a squad that grew up playing soccer together since third grade.
“The love that we have for each other and the belief that we have going forward, I mean this is like a dream the way that we all connect and everything,” he said. “So I don’t think 5-0 is out of the picture. The way we click, it’s unreal. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a team like this.
“We want to go 5-0 to show that we would’ve deserved to go all the way.”
Senior midfielder Bennett Jefferds agreed this team had aspirations to win a state title. But now the focus is on making sure the next Severna Park team to take the field in the fall is set up to have the same mindset — and similar success.
“We’re just trying to have fun, play our best, and teach the younger kids how to act, how to instill tradition and keep the program running,” Jefferds said.
The game started slow as neither team registered a shot in the opening minutes. Severna Park maintained the majority of the play but couldn’t find the finishing touch, or any touch to get quality chances on goal, until a long throw was headed on goal by Jefferds in the 15th minute.
Falcons coach Ryan Parisi urged his team to settle down and “keep the ball” several times, and they eventually took this message to heart and slowly built more scoring chances as the first half wound down.
“We were just sloppy in our decisions, in our choices and execution in the technique of delivering a 10-yard pass,” the coach said.
Two more Severna Park scoring chances came on set pieces late in the first half, which set the stage for the game’s first goal early in the second half. An unlucky bounce after a corner kick hit an Arundel defender’s arm, and Bachmann calmly finished the shot for his fifth goal in three games.
“That was very important,” Jefferds said. “Our whole team was confident in our ability throughout the whole game, even in the first 20 minutes. But after the penalty we were just even more confident, and we knew we could get one or two more goals.” Pierce doubled the lead 15 minutes later. Arundel coach Mike McCarron said simply it was two defensive mistakes that cost them the game.
“When you play against a good team, they do what they’re supposed to do when mistakes are made,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s what we didn’t execute more than anything in this match.
“When we create chances, we’ve got to finish them. We certainly had the chance to be up in this game, and in a tight contest you’re not going to get many chances.”