Stoney Creek, Seaholmin 1-1 deadlock
The Stoney Creek Cougars and Birmingham Seaholm Maples played a 1-1 draw Tuesday night in OAA Red soccer action.
After an uneventful first half that saw the Cougars dominate the ball but produce few good chances to score, the game opened up offensively in the second half.
Seaholm opened the scoring with 19:47 remaining in the game when Maximus Shaya crossed a ball from the right corner that Dylan Genzlinger headed home from six yards out.
Stoney Creek tied the game just over one minute later when Nolan Batur slipped a through pass to Ayden Mell who rifled a left footed shot in from10 yards away.
That was all of the official scoring, though both teams had plenty of other chances inthe second half.
Led by the play of their midfield, including seniors Will Knish, Gaetano Lochirco, and Michael Puchalski, the Cougars had eight shots on goal, but their best chances came from close range only to be shot over the top. Stoney Creek also had a goal called back for offsides early in the second half.
With Cash Ericson anchoring themidfield, theMaples produced a handful of good chances. Even though Sea holm officially finished with just one shot on goal, theMaples still had their chances — including three balls off the crossbar. Twice Seaholm skimmed
the top of the bar and once fired the ball off the underside that dropped down directly onto the line.
“It felt like we came at them much better in the second half. Our attack was better organized,” Maples head coach Jared Vince said. “Some of it, honestly, was we were trying a new formation. We opened with
it, so some of it was just getting more and more comfortable with that formation, and then I think got used to using our outside backs and being able to be a bit more intelligent with getting the ball into space.”
“They opened up the width, and we started pressing thema little higher up on the pitch so that got us bringing more into the attack, I thought. But they stretched the field a bit, created the width that caused a little bit of problems. I
thought we adjusted and countered a little bit, and then it was just a back and forth thing. People were looking for the opportunities to capitalize on it, and neither one of us had that,” Cougars head coach Bryan Mittelstadt said.
The goalies were also solid and did their best work on balls that did not count as shots. BothTommy Kim for the Cougars and Adam Schmidt of the Maples were consistent coming off their lines to shut down
through passes or claim balls in the air before they could develop into shots.
Both teams are still searching for their first league win.
“They had a sweet goal. We had a sweet goal. They (Stoney Creek) are a great team. You can tell that they were organized,” Vince said. “It was a good team performance.”
Stoney Creek (2-2-1 overall, 0-2-1 OAA Red) has a quick turnaround, hosting North Farmington on
Wednesday.
“I thought the boys played well. I thought they played together really nice, especially the first half,” Mittelstadt said. “I thought it was a nice match. Our boys played hard. We just got to make sure that we finish, especially finish early when the opportunities come because as things go throughout the game those opportunities might not be there.”
Seaholm (2-1-2, 0-1-2) faces Rochester Adams on Saturday.