Varsity Boy's Soccer: "Juke Woozalt" Proves to Be More Than a Portmanteau

By Ben Spector
Winning After MidKnight

 

Over the course of a long season teams begin to develop quirks or little things as a team that help to motivate them or give them a laugh at stressful times. Last year for the Middletown High School Knights Varsity Boy’s Soccer team it was The Boys in the Boat, the title of a Daniel James Brown’s book about the United States eight-man rowing team who won a gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics overcoming the harsh reality of the Great Depression to win the medal.

That inspirational story became the rallying cry for the Knights championship season with the book jacket picture being emblazoned on the back of the Middletown warm-up shirts and Middletown ‘rowing” across the Loyola University of Maryland field after winning the state championship.

This year one of the quirks that has developed with the 2016-2017 team is a lot less serious than last year’s but still holds meaning as the Knights showed in their 7-0 win over the North Hagerstown High School Hubs at Conservit Field at Mike Callas Stadium on Tuesday September 13^th.

First, coined in a press release about the contest put about by the Middletown Athletics program, “Juke Woozalt” played a big part in the Knights win.

But, what is Juke Woozalt?

Although, easy for some to understand at first it could be confusing to some. It’s not a sister term for “Gesundheit” the German word for “bless you” although it does sound similar to something that might be heard after a coughing fit.

Instead, it is portmanteau of the names of the two biggest offensive threats in seniors Luke Ahalt and Josh Woozley.

The frightening but catchy name aptly describes the two-headed monster that is the play of Ahalt and Woozley as both have become offensive powerhouses with the two developing a connection that has found the back of the net more often than not.

That two-headed monster would be back in action again as both Woozley and Ahalt would play a defining role in Middletown’s 7-0 win over the Hubs. Already on the season out of Woozley’s seven goals four of them have come off direct assists from Ahalt himself and the game against the Hubs would not provide an exception to that as the combination would strike early with Ahalt assisting Woozley on the goal that started of the scoring for the Knights.

Ahalt would take the reins himself as he would score on a solo effort from the left side of the field into the net to give the Knights a 2-0 lead early in the game.

But, the combination of Woozley and Ahalt wasn’t done there either.

After an Evan Tuckey goal made the score 3-0 Middletown at halftime, “Juke Woozalt” would start things off in the second half as the other side of the combination saw Woozley (after scoring his second goal of the game to make it 4-0) drop an absolute dime to Ahalt who then slotted it home to give the Knights a 5-0 lead.

At that point it would be all elementary for the Knights as the lesser known combination of the Doing brothers would help to add to the Middletown tally as Cristian Doing would slot a pass from Chase Stottlemyer home for the Knights sixth goal.

Then Cristian would share with his brother as he would find Logan Doing for a pass the Doing #2 would slot home to give the Knights a seven goal lead as it would end that way with Middletown up 7-0.

On its face and to those who don’t know about it the “Juke Woozalt” combination might be just a funny thing but to those who experienced up close it is a real thing and something that is a real help for the Knights.

Woozley has scored nine goals for the Knights this season while Ahalt has chipped in two leading to a grand total of eleven of the twenty-one goals that Middletown has scored this season. More importantly the “Juke Woozalt” combo has connected for six of those eleven goals as Ahalt has assisted on five of Woozley’s goals while Woozley has assisted on one of Ahalt’s goals.

Middletown will look to continue the “Juke Woozalt” combination as it has been a cash cow for the Knights and something that the Knights will turn up results consistently and be more than a portmanteau until the very end.