Winning After MidKnight
The
Middletown High School Knights Varsity Boy’s Soccer team is playing very hot
this season. Truthfully, to say that they are playing hot might be the biggest
understatement of the year. Middletown currently holds an undefeated record as
they have won all five games they have played in and for the most part have won
them with a relative degree of ease.
Minus Middletown’s
game against Eastern Tech which they won by a 1-0 score, the Knights have
absolutely dominated all of the teams they have played this season, showing no
mercy to any of the teams that they have faced.
Middletown
has outscored the opposition this season by a 19 goal differential as the
Knights have pocketed 21 goals this season and have only allowed two in what
was the first game of the season against Governor Thomas Johnson.
On top of
that Middletown has recorded four straight clean sheets as the goaltending duo
of senior Ethan Remsberg and sophomore David Anderson has paid big dividends for
Middletown as teams have not been able to break either of the two goalies,
although there hasn’t necessarily been much for them to stop anyways.
The thing the
Knights will watch have to watch for as they head into their match-up against
the Tuscarora High School Titans on Thursday September 15th is a
let-down game in which they play down to the level of their opponents and then
manage to get toppled.
The good news
for Middletown is that in games that could’ve been let down games they have
done everything but play weaker against the weaker opposition as they’ve done
quite the opposite.
In these “let-down”
games the Knights have played quite well as the two games that qualify for that
category have both been blow-out wins for Middletown as they have taken down
the North Hagerstown High School Hubs by a 7-0 score and have taken down the
Governor Thomas Johnson Patriots by a 5-2 score.
The reason
that Middletown has been so good in these “let-down” games is that the Knights’
offense truthfully does not have an off switch. Instead of sitting back in
games that are easy to win, the Knights push and push and push on offense throughout
the contest forcing the opponent’s defense to continuously regroup and have to
expel energy snuffing out Middletown attacks.
This constant
pressure from the Knights has forced teams to crack and crack often as
Middletown’s ability to score in bunches directly relates back to the fact that
the Knights put pressure on their opponents at a consistent rate and attack
from almost every way possible.
The main way
in which Middletown has attacked in some of these “let-down” is by playing
balls up the wings and then trying to feed them in the middle to create chances
and get open scoring opportunities on net. This is not exclusively how
Middletown plays but against some of the lesser opposition it has worked out
quite well for the Knights.
The two main
catalysts for this play are Middletown seniors Luke Ahalt and Josh Woozley as
both have used their excellent speed to find holes and take advantage of
opposing teams. This game against Tuscarora (1-0) will be no different as
Middletown will hope to extend the Titans defense using long runs by the
midfielders and balls up to the forwards that trap the defenders in bad
positions.
If Middletown
manages to play the way that they have all season than this “let-down” game
will be anything but a let down.
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