Sir!

Villa beats Dixie 3-0 last night, This likely gives Villa the #2 seed in the district providing them a path to a possible regional appearance. Not sure when the last time Villa made it out of their district, but safe to say "there are cool things going on with all" four!

That is excellent for Villa. I think their last trip to Regionals was 2012. Villa already lost to St Henry so unless Dixie can upset the Cru, Villa will secure the #2 seed in the 3 team district. Dixie has one win on the season way back in August against Boone, so I'm feeling pretty good about Villa's chances to keep the #2 seed. That'll have them matching up again with Dixie in the #2/#3 game. Should be exciting. Good to see them in contention and people talking about the players.

^ great pics, as always! The photos above reminded me what a good job Joel Grosser did in goal for NCC (another nice young man and GSP participant with a bright future ahead of him).

#12 for Simon Kenton is Bryce O'Hara - SK captain, GSP participant, and excellent young man. Good luck Bryce and SK through end of regular season and heading into Regionals!

As reported by Fort Thomas Matters:

FORT THOMAS MATTERS: Highlands edges NewCath in another classic

Calvary played Villa with a couple players out- down 2-0 late and came back almost pulled it out. The villa goalie is good- VERY good and made some big stops in that game- hats off to the villa team as they played Calvary well and deserve credit for the season they are having. Calvary is progressing- going to be fun to watch.

Villa Madonna GK Scott McQueen has the build and athleticism you'd look for in a recruited college keeper. Club and HS teams might not have gotten him looks, but he's the kind of player who could potentially walk-on to a program and give the incumbent or recruited GK a run for their money.

Pretty much the game you'd expect between these two teams. NCC played well and had their chances. Logan Muck didn't play after taking a yellow card (late in first half?) so still questions to be answered at next meeting at districts. Parker Smith with game winner off a corner. Good luck to NCC at All "A" state finals this weekend.

Final per KHSAA.

I'm not sure Villa is being snubbed. Maybe people have seen the other three more? Also, there are some cool things going on with the other three. For example...

Beechwood is a relatively new program (4 years?). It was not a foregone conclusion that boys soccer would even get a program, let alone that it would survive. They've only been eligible for post-season for the past two years and they haven't made Regionals... yet. There is a good chance that Holmes and Beechwood will be the 2 and 3 seeds in their District meaning one of the them will likely go to Regionals. What a great feeling for the kids who helped start the program 3 or 4 short years ago. That's kind of cool.

Holmes as a program has been steadily improving over the past several years. Lots of credit to Coach Haggard who has been a big factor in this. Another factor (IMO) was change in the law that raised the age high schoolers could drop out from 16 to 18; prior to that Holmes lost a fair number of kids each year when they turned 16 and left school to start working. The kids at Holmes don't always have the same opportunities to play select soccer, though in recent years some have begun playing and have done well. Holmes hasn't made Regionals in more than 10 years. I can't help rooting for them. Keep up the good work Coach Haggard.

Villa Madonna and Calvary Christian do appear to have some similarities. The thing that strikes me about the CC team is their youth. I saw a little bit of their freshman team play at Freshman Regionals and they looked pretty good. That's gotta have CC fans looking forward to the next couple of years. That's kind of exciting too.

As far as comparable stats, Villa has the least good record and lowest Maher rating of the four. Its true that their SoS is the hardest, but the Maher takes SoS into account along with the results you get along the way. No doubt there are special stories at Villa Madonna --like there are at most schools. I'd love to see some posts from folks in the know.

I hope all four of these teams continue to do well. I think we'd all like to see as many Northern KY teams be successful as possible. Lots of excellent kids to root for!

This game means nothing. The district championship will determine who gets the 1 or 2 seed for regionals. It's a shame we can't toss Holmes, Beechwood, Calvary, Conner or some other school who has been having a good year to contest the district.

The game means a lot to the boys. Great local rivalry with quite a few having played together growing up. In the District final game they play for who'll be a #1 and who'll be a #2 in regionals, where they are placed (as all District #1 and #2s are) on opposite sides of the Regional bracket so the next time they could see each other would be the Regional finals. Last time that happened was 2013 when half starters on each team played on the same Club team. It's a friendly rivalry, but every single game is contested. As always, should be a good one!

Over the years I've witnessed many teams that basically rely on one player not do well in come single elimination time. Teams can better prepare tactically to stop this one player, wear him down, frustrate him, etc. And it sounds like this #5 for Collegiate is that typical player that falls into the "trap", i.e. already one red card Vs St X. Very difficult to make a deep run in the State Tournament , 3, 4, 5 wins when your entire offense is pretty much dependent on one player. And Collegiate has to get past Trinity and/or St X just to get out of the 7th Region.

Haji sounds like an outstanding player and he does have 26 goals and 8 assists for Collegiate. But I'm not sure they "basically rely on one player." They've scored 87 so far as a team. Cameron Wheeler has 11 goals and 13 assists; Mirza Ugarak has 12 goals and 6 assists. And Collegiate's defense puts up good stats too. They have only allowed 3 goals in the last 11 games and have 8 clean sheets. Smaller school, so they may have a slightly shorter bench, but sounds like a pretty complete team, as I think others who have seen them play have noted. Region 7 has 4 of the top 6 Maher rated teams right now... no doubt getting out of Regionals will be difficult. It'll be interesting to see how they do as a smaller school going up against St X and Trinity.

Agree with the "thought Calvary would have had a better result" Vs Connor. I would have thought more like a 3-4 goal win, Connor is way down this season. Can Calvary win their region this year, region 10 is over all down, not sure there is a dominant team. Bourbon Co sits on top and they are #56 in KY, kind of says it all.

Campbell County (KY#32) is 7-3 overall and 6-0 in Region 10. They already beat Bourbon, Calvary, MoCo, Pendleton, Brossart. Their three losses come at the hands of Region 9 teams (CovCath 1-2, Cooper 0-3 and HHS 0-2). They'd have to be considered favorites going into Regionals, but I certainly wouldn't say it's a lock by any means.

Highlands might have thought they could coast on last week's glory. Holmes had other ideas scoring in the first minute or so to go up 1-0 (Josh Lemus, I think). Highlands slowly climbed back into it to go up 2-1 at half. Lots of solid defending by Holmes... they do a very good job getting 9 field players behind the ball and jamming up entry to the 18. Second half was more of the same. Highlands looked better but gave up a goal on a quick counter. Holmes GK Roy Carter had a very good game. He was active enough that he cramped up in the second half and had to come out for a minute or so - I don't know if I've ever seen s GK cramp up before. Holmes transitions to counter-attack well with Kerry Nolasco providing good distribribution from a defensive midfield position. For sure Holmes' best team in years. Very good chance they could be playing in Regionale if they can avoid the 4/5 seed in their district. Good luck to them going forward.

Should be a good one. Big week for NCC as they travel to Tower Park Tuesday for another local rivalry game.

I anticipate a tough game.....very sunny day so the sun may be in the Colonels eyes, they are playing away, so the traffic getting their may mess up their pre game rituals, could be windy, might be some players playing injured, it's been a very hard week of games, school is really tough this week, ........for all these reasons:

 

Colonels win by only 1 goal.

Now THAT's more like it... thanks!

Up to this point in this thread, 8 post and counting I agree with nearly everything written. A couple of things to add. As Sir said (as far as I know) there is not a "mandatory minimum" games. And I know little to nothing about how you put together a HS season schedule, but if its me, I'm not entering my team in any tournament requiring my team to play two games in one day, either in July, August, September or October. And IMO it clearly should be a KHSAA rule, NO more then one game per day, July 15 though the end of the season.

Next, from my reading this YC is NOT making any excuses. He is simply pointing out issues Cooper is going through, injuries, lack of depth, etc. causing the staff to tinker with the lineup. Just asking, were Cooper JV players available for this trip? Would that have helped, sounds like the 3 injuries left a thin roster very very thin.

I didn't read YC as making excuses, but rather his responding to shutout's query. And the explanation makes sense. All teams deal with injuries throughout the season and a difficult stretch in the schedule can exacerbate the problem. I might have thought he was making excuses if unprompted he offered injuries and lineup instability as an explanation for underperformance. That's not this thread.

* * *(disclaimer, this next sentence is not an excuse but an explanation to support my theory) Pretty sure they have had 2,3 or more starters miss every game since early in the season, so lack of depth has had a huge impact.

CCH roster on KHSAA has 21 listed, 17 field players and 4 GK. Game stats show Matos out for 3 or 4 games, but all 17 field players getting time during each of the first 10 regular season games. For the Trinity game only 13 field players saw action (no Bradley, Schneider, Seibert or Ventre) and for the HHS game only 13 saw action (no Bradley, Schneider, Seibert or Dietz). Stats for Dixie and Ryle aren't in the system yet. Maybe the stats for the first 12 games are not correct? Which 2, 3 or more starters have been missing games?

I think the 2 in one day is a bad idea, for all the reasons that Sir mentions. I am not sure what other options a school has if the School Board does not allow you to play in the events that are held on Saturday and Sunday.

 

Further to your point on subs, because of injuries Cooper was down to 12 players for this one, I think South Warren dressed about 22 kids for the contest.

Another option... schedule a few less games. 21 games is the regular season maximum, not a mandatory minimum. Just because it is permissible, doesn't mean it's helpful.

All A Region 9/10 final on Tuesday sees NCC as a 1.5 point favorite according to Maher. NCC coming off close games with KY#33 Tate Creek (3-2 win) and KY#9 Woodford County (1-0 loss).

I give NCC the edge 3-1, but I think this will play out as a close game until late. Other thoughts?

I'm not sold on the value of playing 2 games in one day. On tired legs in game 2 the quality of soccer goes down and chance for injuries goes up. High school soccer with unlimited substitutions is too often played at break-neck pace further contributing to the grind. The only scenario I really see 2 games in one day making sense is early season when you can bring along enough kids to essentially play split-squad games. Mid or late season I just don't get how it makes your team any better.

This matchup was highlighted as one of the games of the week by Maher. If 2.5 point under dog CCH can win at Anderson they'll be in the running for Maher upset of the week. It's gut check time for the Colonels. I think they rise to the occasion, and snag a 1-0 win.

Key question will be how much they have left in the tank to pivot through a very capable Simon Kenton team on Thursday before hosting Madison Central on Saturday. Good luck Colonels - stay healthy!

How did CovCath JV fare against Ryle?

Congrats to Ryle. They look like the real deal. 11-2-2, only two losses to Anderson and Moeller. 11 clean sheets and only 2 goals conceded to KY teams (1 to Henry Clay and 1 to St. Henry).

Who scored for Ryle? How did CovCath do?

Updates on scores and brackets for the freshmen regionals are being tweeted:

@soccer_nky

I just looked at CCH schedule. If you do not include this weekend and the Freshman showcase, they have had one Saturday game. Al the rest are during the weekdays. Do they do a Freshman Regional for the girls teams? When my daughter played about 4 years ago they did not have a regional.

Ryle and Highlands boys are similar... I think they only play one Saturday game each besides the freshmen showcase and freshmen regionals. It still means the kids playing club also are grinding it 6 and 7 days a week, but at least they don't have to try to do both club and high school games most weekends.

So we have some playing both sides of the fence, be strong and make one prediction.

CCH 2- Ryle 0.

How can I make a firm prediction without knowing if everyone for CCH is going to be healthy and played in the right spots? I think its a 1-1 tie, but I'm really just hoping for a great game with no injuries and little equivocation when its all said and done.