A Central focus
Hawks shut out Kidron Central Christian and Canton Central Catholic
By Dave Mast
October 22, 2012
382
For the most part of the 2012 soccer season, Hilands Grant Stutzman has shown how adept he is at putting the ball into the back of the net.
On Thursday, Oct. 11 at Kidron Central Christian, Stutzman showed the crowd how good he was at distributing it as well.
Stutzman drilled two pinpoint passes to the facing of the net where teammates Trey Riggle and Hunter Herrera each finished strong, and the Hawks defense was solid all night in earning a shutout in Hilands 2-0 victory over the Comets.
Hiland coach Scott Bodiker said that the newly implemented 4-3-3 format his team is now playing utilizes Stutzmans immense skills well, although at the same time may hamper his scoring.
Grants got great skills, said Bodiker of his high-scoring senior. But in this set he spends more time outside than he might in the box where he can score more. But he is very effective in assisting. If we could have him make the pass and finish the goal, that would be awesome, added Bodiker with a laugh.
The first half of the game saw the comets create several decent looks at the goal, one in particular, but Central fired blanks on all occasions. As the game wore on Hilands depth began taking a toll, and when Stutzman found Riggle in the first half, and Riggles well placed shot rolled into the left corner as if in slow motion, it gave the Hawks a 1-0 halftime lead. Stutzman zipped a pass into Herrera in the second half, and the junior forward drove it home, putting the Hawks in the drivers seat, up 2-0.
At that point, the Comets, who dont have Hilands depth, began running out of gas, and played a lot of chase soccer over the final 20 minutes.
We had some chances in the first half that we didnt put away that could have changed the way the game turned out, said Central coach Gary Lepley. They made a couple of plays where they finished and we didnt and that was the difference in the game.
Bodiker said that aside from the two goal scores for the hawks, neither team generated a whole lot on offense, mainly because the defenses were flying to the ball and making life difficult to get anything going.
Defensively we have been playing pretty well, although we had a couple little errors that could have cost us, said Bodiker. We havent had a ton of bad decisions back there lately, and once in a while youre going to give up a chance or two and you hope your keeper makes a play, which Tyler did once tonight. Neither team created many chances.
Two days earlier Hiland had plenty of chances on senior night as the Hawks took on Canton Central Catholic in their final home game of the year.
Hiland had little trouble disposing of CCC, winning 3-0 in a game which saw them dominate the ball on offense, give up very few shots and control the tempo the entire game.
Bodiker started all 11 seniors in the game, one being Spencer Yoder, who limped out to mid-field with his hamstring injury. Hiland also started Riggle in goal, and Central agreed to allow Hiland to put the ball in play then have it kicked out of bounds so Yoder could be replaced by Riggle up front and regular goalie Tyler Hochstetler could take his patrol in goal.
I was always joking with Bods (Bodiker) because we talked earlier in the season, and I asked him if I could ever do that if it came down to it, said Riggle. He always told me no, so when he told me I could I was pretty happy.
But what made him even happier was to get a win on the senior groups final home game of their careers.
Ever since seventh grade we have kind of been the class that got overlooked because of all of the great athletes in the classes in front of us, said Riggle. Those guys were great players, but at the beginning of the year we talked about how this was our time to step up, and lately it feels like we are really starting to bring it all together.
They certainly did on this night.
Riggle got the scoring started when he drove a corner to Grant Stutzman, who sidestepped a defender and flicked the ball into the goal with a remarkable header. Later in the half, Alec Mast rifled a crossing pass to the far post, about 10 yards out, and Cameron Stutzman made an incredibly tough shot on a ball about three feet off the ground, smoking the ball into the upper 90 to make it 2-0.
Riggle then took on three defenders in the second half and wiggled his way through to get a great look at a 15-footer that he knocked home to complete the scoring.
Central is very difficult to score on because they play a very defensive style of game, said Bodiker. Getting that early goal, a great goal from Grant, was huge. It forced them to try to play a different game a bit. I dont think people realize how tough a shot that is to make. And Cams goal was really good too. It felt like we had the ball at their end of the field 90 percent of the time, and it was nice to see us get a game like that where we finish. It gave us some breathing room.
Bodiker again praised the defense for yet another shutout, and said that looking back on the season, the teams recent run may well be the result of the Chippewa game, which they fell behind 3-0 playing as poorly as they have all season, only to rally in the second half, and although they didnt win, they played extremely hard, a 40 minute period where Bodiker said their season may well have turned to the better.
