Hawks gain ground in the second half to down Knights 2-0
Hiland's Chris Miller attempts to work around West Holmes keeper Brendon Yoder during second-half play of their rivalry game on Tuesday, Sept. 3 at Hiland. Yoder made a series of spectacular plays to stymie Miller on this one-on-one confrontation, but the Hawks slipped by the Knights 2-0.
Hiland boys head soccer coach Scott Bodiker said when it comes to showdowns between his Hawks and the West Holmes Knights, people can throw out the records and any past history and sit back and watch what is sure to be a spirited and epic battle on the pitch.
That is exactly what played out Tuesday, Sept. 3 at Hiland High School, where the Hawks staved off a nice effort from the Knights and came away a 2-0 victor.
Hiland touched the back of the net early when Chris Miller fed Taylor Mullet, who slipped past a defender on the left side and then shot a scorching roller into the net past a diving Brendon Yoder, the ball sneaking into the lower-left corner for the score.
However, after taking the early lead, West Holmes seized control of the tempo, and they were the team pushing the issue. Tyler Masters and Jackson Oliver controlled the middle of the field for West Holmes, and the Knights kept pressuring Hiland but couldn’t convert that advantage into a goal.
Hiland did produce a nice opportunity in the 37th minute when Yoder swatted away a shot, but it found the foot of Chris Miller, who smacked a shot into the middle of the goal with Yoder still wide left. However, Masters made an incredible save, playing keeper by heading the attempt away.
That tempo did not please Bodiker, who had some choice words for his team at the break.
“I normally don’t get all that animated at halftime very often, but I was pretty fired up at halftime,” Bodiker said. “The last 25 minutes of the half were bad, and in fairness West Holmes played really well. They controlled the game and were doing some things at midfield that really gave us some trouble. Fortunately we sorted that out in the second half and played a lot better.”
Knights’ first-year head coach Jason Arnold said while his team did control tempo for a large portion of the first half, it didn’t result in his team coming away with a score, which is something he said this team needs to work at.
“We are extremely talented, but just making it work on the field is where we have to get better,” Arnold said. “It seems as though we are just one good touch away from making something positive happen on the offensive end of the field. We can’t seem to finish right now, but overall we saw some really good things out there tonight.”
Five minutes into the second half, Hiland forward Chris Miller intercepted a crossing pass near midfield and had a one-on-one versus Yoder. The veteran Knights keeper didn’t wilt, charging out to meet Miller on his own terms. The two did what seemed like a choreographed dance near the 18, where Miller tried to juke around Yoder several different times, but Yoder seemed intent on stifling the attack. He did so, forcing Miller out wide on a stunning defensive gem.
“He’s a great player," Arnold said of Yoder. “These last two games he has brought out some stuff that we haven’t seen from him before. The effort is always there, and he is a great leader, and that play was tremendous.”
The momentum of that play didn’t last long, and moments later Hiland got its insurance goal in the 46th minute when a crossing pass from the left side from Collin Lowe went through a host of Knights defenders and the bounding ball found the left foot of Casey Lowe, who got on top of it and drove home a crushing line-drive that Yoder had no prayer of snagging.
“We just broke down there and didn’t make a play defensively when we needed to,” Arnold said. “We weren’t very disciplined there, and against a team like that, you make a mistake and seconds later it’s a goal.”
Miller sent a shot just wide right in the 52nd minute as the Hawks looked to tack on, and West Holmes came up empty on its best scoring opportunity when Curtis Wagner sent a scorcher just over the top of the crossbar.
With 2:20 to play, Masters made a late run down the left side, flying by two defenders and finding a route to the net, but a solid defensive effort turned that away, and the game ended with the Hawks up by a pair, giving Hiland its 15th straight win in the rivalry.
Bodiker said despite the winning streak for Hiland, now at 15 games, he knows it is always going to be a battle. He said this group has plenty of talent and some scary speed that teams will have to deal with.
“They play a brutal schedule, but they have a really talented core group of players,” Bodiker said of West Holmes. “That’s a dangerous team, so it feels good to come out of here with a W because this is always a tough game. We are on a run right now, but if you look at the results over the years, most of the games have been really close, hotly contested games.”
Arnold said playing a talented program like Hiland tough was promising, and there were plenty of good things to take away. However, he said the trip back to Millersburg would not be a happy one.
“These guys are competitive, and they’re going to have a bad bus ride home, but at the end of the day, we can take things from this game, go back to work tomorrow and make ourselves better,” Arnold said.
Hiland improved to 4-1 on the campaign while West Holmes fell to 1-2-2. Hiland took the junior varsity game by a score of 4-0.