Indian Creek boys topple Oak Glen
MINGO JUNCTION — Another fast start. Another victory.
The Indian Creek boys’ soccer team tallied the first five goals of the game against Oak Glen en route to a 7-1 victory on a hot Saturday afternoon at Muth Field.
“We are starting to play with confidence,” Indian Creek (3-0) head coach Chuck Brettell said. “It is like night and day. The young kids – we have three freshmen out there – they have adjusted to the speed and the physicality of the high school game, and the older kids are playing with a purpose. They are expecting to win now. When they show, they are expecting to win. It is like night and day. The atmosphere has changed 100 percent.”
The Golden Bears played better in the second half than they did in the first half.
“We tried to play together,” Oak Glen (2-2) head coach Joe Provenzano said. “We are working on that now. We need to get better at playing together. We also trying to be more aggressive. Our lack of aggression has hurt us. We need to be more aggressive.”
Nathan Jones netted a hat trick to lead the way offensively for the boys from Jefferson County, while Gunnar Brettell tallied one goal and two assists and Zack Neely netted a pair of goals. Also, Malik Archie recorded a goal, while Esign Maiorano ended up with two assists, while Bryce Throckmorton collected one assist.
Andrew Price produced eight saves in goal for the victors.
“They hustled to the ball,” Provenzano said. “They sent balls over the top. They put pressure on our defense. Our defense held their line. They put pressure on us, but our defense did a much better job in the second half.
“Also, we did a better job of possessing the ball in the second half. We were able to control the ball on their side of the field.”
Gage Bailey tallied the lone goal of the game for the boys from Hancock County off of an assist by Seth Mozingo.
Oak Glen used two goalies in the game. Nate Pryor recorded 12 saves in the game, while Chance Provenzano did not have to make one.
“We knew the (Shane) Theiss kid is really good,” Coach Brettell said. “I harped to the kids all week about him. He can fly. He hurt us last year. He scored a goal against us. I scouted them at the Brooke Classic and watched film from last year. I knew we needed to take him away. Our defense did an outstanding job against him. He’s a burner.”
Indian Creek outshot Oak Glen, 30-15, in the game. The boys in white took 20 shots on goal, while the boys in blue took 10.
The visitors took 13 goal kicks in the game, while the hosts took nine. The victors held a seven to four advantage in corner kicks.
The Redskins led 4-0 at halftime.
Indian Creek scored three goals less than midway through the first half, with all three goals coming in about a seven-minute stretch with the first goal coming 13 minutes into the match.
Jones scored the first two goals of the game off of assists by Gunnar Brettell, and Brettell collected his team’s third goal of the game when he scored off of a corner kick.
Neely capped the scoring in the first half with a goal off of an assist by Maiorano, who assisted on both of Neely’s goals.
Neely opened the scoring in the second half to make the score 5-0.
Then, Bailey scored to pull Oak Glen within 5-1, but that was as close as the Golden Bears got the rest of the way.
The Redskins tacked on a pair of late goals. Archie scored the first one, and then Jones scored off of an assist by Throckmorton to cap the scoring.
“We have gone up 3-0 in all three games,” Coach Brettell said. “That is a change for us. We have started fast, and it is important for us to start fast. It hurt us last year. We dug ourselves into some holes.”
Oak Glen’s next game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at home against Harrison Central.
Indian Creek’s next game is at 5:30 p.m. Monday at home against Cambridge, and Indian Creek is scheduled to play at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Big Red.
“We will find out how good we are Tuesday,” Coach Brettell said. “Big Red is the gold standard as far as I am concerned. Greg’s (Bowers) teams are always good. If we can play with them, we can play with anybody.
“Don’t get me wrong, we are not looking past Cambridge on Monday, We can do that. We are trying to build a program, and when you do that you have to take everything one game at a time. If we start thinking we are good, that is when someone is going to run or nose in it.”
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