Tough Games in Michigan...Happy to head Home...

The U18 & U16 Academy teams flew to Michigan last weekend to face Vardar and Derby County Wolves. The games on Saturday started well against Vardar but ended not so good for the U16s.

The U16 got on the board first against an extremely physical team with Derek Scrick scoring in the first 12mins on an open net. That lead lasted about 4min before Vardar equalized. The wind is favoring Vardar and they end scoring again before half. The Juniors started the second have down 1-2, but this time with the wind. Although the wind is providing us with opportunities to shot long range, it doesn't help enough and we were unable to capitalize. Vardar ends up scoring again and the game ends 1-3.

The U18 take the field next against Vardar and match up pretty well the fist half. Both teams are playing quite physical. At halftime the score is 0-0. Second half, Will Witherspoon gets on the board for us with about 15mins remaining in the second half and the U18 pull out a 1-0 victory. We are happy for Will that he scored but unfortunately he broke his foot in this match, which will be a huge loss.

On Sunday we are playing Derby County Wolves (DCW). The U16 start of well commanding the game from the start until a miss clearance lands at the feet of a DCW player and he smashes it in. About 10mins later we make another mistake and they capitalized and scored again. Our players are getting frustrated as we are controlling the game but they are packing it in defensively which makes it hard to penetrate. At half-time we are down 0-2. Their fast forwards are a tough match-up and they open up the 2nd half with a quick goal and we go down 0-3. Coach Parry made a few subs, one of which was Eric Moore who scored about 5mins after he was subed in. The momentum started just a little too late and the game ended with us losing again 1-3.

The first half was well played by both U18 teams. DCW appear to be a real organized team with big talented players. The Wizards are hard working scrappy players that find themselves controlling the ball more than DCW. Keeping DCW out of our goal in the second half will be increasing harder has our legs continue to get tired. The second half begins with a tie at 0-0 but doesn't last long as they score on a ball that was slotted in and finished. The U18s continue to compete and Taylor Vinnage is playing great in goal but we were unable to finish, so unfortunately the U18s lost 0-1...It was a tough weekend for all and I think the boys were happy to leave Detroit. They are off to Chicago this weekend!