Weekend roundup
BREMEN - Sectionals for high school boys soccer is still about two weeks away, but fans at Jane’s Park were treated to a playoff-quality game between Bremen and Argos Saturday afternoon.
Unfortunately, unlike what would happen in the postseason, after the two teams battled for 80 minutes, including a controversial non-call in the final seconds, the friendly ended in a 2-2 tie instead of continuing into overtime or a shootout to decide a winner.
“No one likes a tie, honestly,” said Bremen head coach Mark Yoder.
“It’s an unjust result,” countered Argos head coach Todd Vanderweele, whose squad is ranked No. 1 in Class 1A. “Both teams fought really hard.”
And both teams had a couple of good chances to break the tie in the final 15 minutes. For Argos, Michael Richard’s header just missed and Sean Richard’s blast caromed off the post with just 1:30 remaining. Bremen’s close calls included two shots by Collin Moren - a strong drive that Argos keeper Kurt Johnson tipped away with less than 10 minutes to play, then five minutes later his header from close range went off the post and came back into the field of play and was cleared.
“We call it the curse of the square post,” added Yoder of Moren’s nearmiss. “I thought we had opportunities to seal the game at the end, but we didn’t finish so that’s frustrating. It could have gone either way there at the end. There were spells where both teams had an advantage and some unlucky near-misses from both sides.
“It was extraordinarily
frustrating (ending in a tie), but we said to the team, ‘Let that frustration sit inside of you and let it ignite you next week when we play some more conference games.’”
The controversy happened with just five seconds left. As Argos was clearing a final Bremen surge in the box, the Lions’ Alex Alvarado went down on a 50/50 ball, but no call was made and the game ended.
“There are always calls that you don’t agree with,” said Vanderweele of the final sequence. “I felt the referees did a good job overall. They were fair with their calls. If the ref would have blown his whistle (on the final play), I wouldn’t have argued because he’s right there. If it was a foul, by all means, call it.”
“From our vantage point, yes, it looked like a foul,” countered Yoder. “I made my case, the referee disagreed, but I’m going to let the ref do his job. I have to respect his decision and we move on. We take it and use it as fuel as we move forward.”
Alvarado gave the Lions the early lead with a blast in the fifth minute. Argos answered 20 minutes later
when Ted Redinger connected with Devon Allen, who found the back of the net and the game went into intermission, 1-1.
Michael Richards fed Gabe Stone in the 61st minute to give the Dragons a 2-1 lead, but it was shortlived as Bremen answered just three minutes later. After a handball call on
Argos, Lennin Diaz lofted a soft pass on the restart that Michael Ramirez headed in to make it 2-2.
“That was fantastic,” Yoder said of Ramirez’s goal. “That’s the kind of intensity we’re asking from our guys - to run in there and absolutely go after it, doing it for your brothers. We win games as a team.
When we try to win individually, we’re pretty average. When we play as a team, and attack as a team and defend as a team, we can be great. It would be amazing. At times we were there.”
“In this case, I’m not really upset (with a tie),” concluded Vanderweele. “Bremen is a very good team. They’ve beaten us the last two years. Two years ago they really took it to us. I’m just glad we could give them a game and get something out of it. A tie is not a loss. I take that we can play with teams that are big and physical.
We made some bozo mistakes that we don’t usually make, but you can attribute that to playing against an intense team.”
Bremen will host Jimtown on Tuesday, while Argos entertains Oregondavis on Thursday.
• ARGOS 2, BREMEN 2 At Bremen (Jane’s Park)
B - Alex Alvarado 5th min
A - Devon Allen (Ted Redinger) 25th
A - Gabe Stone (Michael Richard) 61st min
B - Michael Ramirez (Lennin Diaz) 64th min
Shots: Argos, Bremen
Saves: Argos 6 (Kurt Johnson), Bremen 8 (Dominic Snook) Fouls: Argos 3, Bremen 9 Corner kicks: Argos 5, Bremen 8 Yellow cards: none
Record: Argos 8-3-1, Bremen 8-2-1