I know Grant County is very solid this year, but this might be just a little closer than I had expected the final outcome would be.  Kudos to the Braves.

Ryle has now won 6 of their last 7 (a loss to Dixie the only loss in that stretch), and they now get their long-awaited battle with Cooper on Tuesday night (at Ryle).  There is no love lost between the two coaching staffs, and while Ryle has been the top program in the 33rd for a while, this is likely Cooper's best chance to win the 9th, so a ton is on the line in this seeding game on Tuesday night.  Conner can certainly be formidable, so avoiding the Cougars in that 2/3 game in the district semi-finals would be advantageous for both Cooper and Ryle.  Ryle is now 7-3-2 on the season.  

CovCath vs Dixie or Ryle vs Cooper on Tuesday, decisions to be made as to what game to attend tomorrow night.

Grant County falls to 10-2-1 on the season (losses to Ryle and Bishop Brossart, and a tie to Oldham County), and they host Beechwood on Tuesday night before heading back to Union to play Cooper on Thursday night.

I went to this game.  Grant County really packs it in.  Ryle had the ball in Grant County's back third pretty much the entire first half.  I enjoyed listening to the GC keeper Kearns yell instructions to the players on the field.  Ryle had a few good opportunities to score, but either shot over the goal or wide of it.

Second half was pretty much like the first.  Ryle finally got a through ball from an attacking player that had dribbled down to the end line and then passed it back to the 6 yard box and the Ryle player following finished it to the back of the net.  Ryle scored with 22 minutes left in the game, so Grant County was really packing it in, but when you are able to pressure that much, stuff happens.  About 4 minutes later the Grant County defender on the right side fouled a Ryle player in the box and the PK was converted.  I left after that as I had seen enough.  

Ryle did a good job pressing up, controlling the ball, but took a number of questionable shots from the outside.  Maybe the Raiders were trying to pass the ball across, but they ended up in the keeper hands multiple times.  

Grant County had a game plan...which I'm assuming they have used all year long.  The HC for Grant County in the second half yelled out to his attacking player at one time "this is what we talked about, we aren't going to get a lot of chances".  He stated that after Grant County had played the ball forward for one of their few chances to attack the back line of the Raiders.  Grant County knows who they are and accept that they have to take advantage of their opportunities, which looking at their record they must do well.

The Raider keeper (Barth) is like a director in their back field.  He was constantly giving direction and was very engaged with his team even though he saw little to no shots taken on him.

Looking forward to the Cooper vs Ryle game on Tuesday and then Conner vs Ryle on Thursday.