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| SportsThursday, October 18, 2007 2:23 AM CDT |
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West soccer wins 11-0; NCHS edges BHS to reach regional final
NORMAL — Just because the Normal West High School Class AA Regional soccer semifinals came and went Wednesday, it doesn’t mean it’s too late for a coach to make changes. “I’m toying with things still,” said Normal Community coach Don Ideran, whose team never trailed thanks to that fact during a 2-1 win over Bloomington. Ideran moved defender Connor Donath to forward, and the freshman made the gamble pay off with his first goal of the season in the eighth minute with help from a long assist by goalie Ethan Cashen. “I wanted a big strong guy up top who can hold onto the ball,” Ideran said. “We wanted somebody who could go up and cause trouble. He did everything we wanted.” Normal West gave Kankakee more trouble than any team had all season during an 11-0 Wildcat whitewash in Wednesday’s first semifinal. Normal West (14-5-3) and NCHS (6-6-8) meet in Saturday’s 11 a.m. final where the winner earns a ticket to Tuesday’s 6:30 p.m. sectional semifinal at Champaign Centennial. In two previous meetings, NCHS and West tied 0-0 and 2-2. “Whoever can make the best use of their chances is the one that is going to win,” Ideran said. “If you don’t make a point blank shot, you’ve probably cost yourself the game.” NCHS-BHS NCHS, seeded fourth in the sectional, moved ahead 2-0 with 21:01 left on Chris Norris’ second goal of the season, a blast from 18 yards out. Kevin Bischoff got the assist. “Their keeper (Shailer Thomas) is the best I’ve seen since I’ve been in the area refereeing or coaching,” Ideran said. “You are not normally going to beat him with anything less than a big-time shot. The one by Norris was a big-time shot.” Thomas, who has already earned all-sectional honors, is on the all-state ballot, which will be voted on Sunday. Norris and the Ironmen tied BHS, 0-0, Sept. 1 and then edged the Purple Raiders, 1-0, Sept. 18. “I think we’ve gotten better as the season has gone on,” said Norris, whose team outshot BHS, 15-4. Clayton Zell’s goal with 20 seconds left averted the shutout. His 20-yarder floated over Cashen’s head and was set up by Matt Speer’s throw in. “I am proud of our fight,” said BHS coach Tony Bauman, whose No. 5-seeded squad fell to 8-9-4. “Twenty seconds to go and we were still fighting out there.” West-Kankakee Four goals by Nate Gottsacker and three apiece by Austin Eichelberger and Mark Backsmeier continued an offensive onslaught Normal West has used to win four straight while outscoring the opposition, 29-2. The regular-season slaughter rule of halving the time left once a team is ahead by seven was not in effect. Wildcat coach Val Walker was glad. “It gave all 22 boys a chance to get out there and get some quality minutes,” said Walker, who pulled his starters after the gap grew to 9-0 with 28:40 left before bringing them back for the final 11:00. “It was more to get them out of my hair. They wanted to get back out there. It’s my (35th) birthday and I was feeling a little bit giving.” Matt Barnet gave Normal West a goal and an assist while Gottsacker and Tyler DeGroot each had two assists. Notching one assist each were Eichelberger, Jose Gonzalez, Daniel Kohlhase and Andrew Howard. “They are well organized offensively and they took advantage of our mistakes,” said Kankakee coach Peter Bretzlaff, whose No. 8-seeded team ended the year 5-17. Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.
Common Sense wrote on Oct 18, 2007 3:15 PM:
Bad Sportsmanship by Coach Walker wrote on Oct 18, 2007 11:49 AM:
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