Boy's Soccer: Knights shoot to lock up early season title

By Ben Spector
Winning After MidKnight

 

MIDDLETOWN-No matter what level of sports it is, any time you’re part of a team or watching a team that has a chance to win a championship it is something special.

The Middletown High School Knights Varsity Boy’s Soccer team will have just that chance when they take on the Linganore High School Lancers on Saturday September 3^rd at 9:00 a.m. in the Sheffler-Ford Tournament.

Middletown has a large advantage in the point standings as they hold first place with nine points in the standings. Walkersville is in second with five points while Linganore is in third with four points and Governor Thomas Johnson brings up the rear with two points.

The Knights got the tournament and their season off to an excellent start with a high-powered 5-2 win over the Patriots in their last game. A varied and strong offensive attack had the Knights end up with five different goal scorers and eight different players record points for the Knights.

The way the tournament is set-up forces the first games for each team to be more offensive in nature as teams receive a point for every goal they score. This was not an issue for the Knights as they put on an offensive show, using a scoring touch to blow past the Patriots.

But, in this contest with the Knights now having a concept of what they’ll need to do to win the Sheffler-Ford Tournament it would be likely that Middletown would take a more defensive approach as a 1-0 win in regulation and a win in the penalty shootout would mean that 2^nd place Walkersville would have to win in regulation while scoring five goals and win in the penalty shootout.

So, while the offense got a chance to shine in the last game now the defense will get a chance to step up and perform for Middletown, which again will be a special thing to watch, considering the defensive back for Middletown has essentially the same members that were on the defensive back when Middletown won the 2A State Championship last year.

Holding down the fort for the Knights over the past two years have been seniors Dom Rudakevych, Evan Joseph, Will Kinna, and Will Miller with junior Timmy Kovalchick also logging significantly large amounts of time for the Knights on the back line. Statistically, the Knights were pound for pound as tough to score on as almost any team in the state as Middletown only conceded 15 goals over the course of 19 games, averaging a paltry 0,79 goals allowed average.

Middletown, will have a much tougher contest on their hand when they square up against the Lancers, a team who the Knights drew with by a 2-2 score last year and have carried over a large number of players from last year’s team. The Lancers will need to score and score often if they have any hopes of winning the Sheffler-Ford Tournament with a win as the Lancers would need at least a six or seven goal win to even have a chance at the trophy.

With all that in mind, Middletown is in the drivers’ seat to win the 2016 Sheffler-Ford Tournament but know the Knights need to be the ones to put the car in the garage.