whatsalenyou

I think that it is going to be St. Henry 3-0. They have come on strong toward the end of the year with some personnel and formation changes. I think that they end up finishing around the goal better tonight because they can't hit the post as many times as they have over the course of the season without having a night when things go their way. Dixie beat Villa pretty soundly, but I think that St. Henry will remember what happened last year when they thought that they just had to show up to win. Looking forward to what should be a good, clean game.

Congrats Colonels! Glad to see my upset prediction turned out to be wrong. Always good to see the best team win. Sounds like they are pulling things together with this kind of offensive production and shut out defense.

Tough to pick who is the favorite in some of the games such as Ryle v Cooper and Highlands v NCC so I will take Villa over Dixie as being my upset. The games I mentioned previously are kind of pick'em type games to me where either team could easily win and not be that surprising. I think that Villa can play better than expected from time to time and Dixie's offense may not be enough to rack up a lot of goals. I think that Villa has a chance to sneak out with a win.

Koking at St. Henry has five shutouts and has given up just one goal in the past four games. It's tough to evaluate a keeper based on stats as there are ten players in front of him that can limit the number of opportunities an opponent has to score. Admittedly you have to use something to judge them as seeing all of them is difficult, but a quality defense can certainly help a keeper's stats. I would go Grosser, Seay, and Barton.

Forgot to say that the game was well officiated and that it was a clean game. if you complain when they are bad, you need to give them props when they are good. Good luck to SK in the Districts and the remainder of their season.

The responses to any Scott thread really make it difficult to sympathize with them. They do make it easy to understand what is going on out there and why there are never any consequences. I don't understand how you can look at what has happened the last couple of years and not see that there is a problem. At some point you have to be embarrassed and want to have your school and team represented in a better light don't you? Those that want to accept this as long as you are winning, I would like to ask this question. Why not strive to win and conduct yourself in a way that you/your parents/school will be proud? I was also a public school student...how about not casting us in such a bad light?

I would agree that Cov Cath and St. Henry both have students who turn out in force. St. Henry had a huge student section last night for the Homecoming game that was loud and rowdy. You have to love when they turn out in themes for the games! Last night they dressed as various animals with each class assigned a different type of animal. There have been nights dedicated to beachwear, Western, and several others that have been well-coordinated. Cov Cath is the only team that I have seen travel with a student section.

Looks like someone woke up this team. They have played much better over the past two games. Passing, defense and work rate have been much better and they seem to be putting things together. The changes they made seem to be paying off at this point.

I think that most are looking at the last two years in making their judgment. Having a player get a red card in a Varsity match and then playing him the next day in a JV tournament is beyond belief...especially when he gets a red card in that tournament as well! Where is the discipline there? That clearly bent the rules beyond what most would deem to be acceptable. With the number of reds in the current year as well, it is tough to argue that they are better today from that standpoint than they were last year. I think that they are a very talented team, but discipline is not a strength there in my opinion.

I'll go St. Henry 2-1. Homecoming game! Looked much better in their last game. Hopefully they can continue pulling it together.

So much for the Maher rankings. This game was never really close. Male seemed disinterested at times. They were caught flat-footed on a corner where no one moved at all including the player who scored on the header from around the 18, then again on a set piece in the second half. Activity level for St. Henry was much better last night. Good to see them score a few...most they have scored since last year. I hope this gets then rolling going forward, but I am afraid that Male may have been overrated.

Glad to see they got the win and even better when a little-used Senior scores the winning goal! Goal by Brian Fiedler about 10 minutes into the first half for the only goal of the game. St. Henry again rattled the frame a few times, but couldn't put another in the back of the net. I will point out that it was a well-played clean game. A couple of yellow cards, but they were isolated incidents from hard fouls with one going to each team. Game never got chippy and there didn't seem to be any animosity between players. Since there is rarely any praise for the refs, I need to say that they did a good job last night. Game was called relatively consistently and no major missed calls. Great to see after the debacle that was the last game against Brossart!

I am going to predict that St. Henry breaks out of their funk tonight and scores a decisive victory. I am going with 4-0 tonight. At some point all of the missed opportunities have to swing in their favor and they start cashing in some of them. Emotion of Senior Night brings it home tonight.

The officiating in this game was horrendous. The two cards mentioned above were frustration over blatant inconsistencies in the way the game was being called. An obvious foul seconds before on Brossart was allowed then a much cleaner play by St Henry was called a foul at the edge of the box. The ref gave Brossart two highly questionable kicks at the edge of the box that led to their goals. The AR on the fans'side of the field was completely worthless as he wouldn't even indicate who was supposed to take a throw and ignored the Brossart keeper moving off the line early again on the last PK. Keeper took at least two or three steps forward before it was kicked. Worst crew that I have seen in a long time. At one point the center blew his whistle making no call and came over to talk to the AR who couldn't have an opinion to save his life and took away a throw in from St Henry to call an imaginary foul to give Brossart yet another kick. Game was tough to watch. Took forever with all of the stops in the action. Brossart deserved the win or tie. St Henry is desperately looking for a way to mesh their players into a team and the answers just aren't coming. They are struggling to finish anything in the flow of play. They need to find answers quickly or they are going to have plenty of time to get their homework done come tournament time. Congrats to Brossart and good luck in the All A.

I guess that Cov Cath and I have something in common....neither one of us saw this coming! Congrats to the Birds on the win. Very surprising upset.

Brossart is a traditional rival who doesn't get originally scheduled until after the All "A" games get played as there is always a chance that the two could play each other in the tournament. So to prevent playing each other twice in a season, they work to schedule the game if one or the other gets knocked out before playing each other. As to playing Cooper at this point in time, I would assume that allowing the players some rest or leave some practice time to work out issues identified in games would seem to make some sense. I know that they have several kids trying to heal up from minor injuries at this point. I am sure that St. Henry's coaches would also like to get a look at their Freshman team in the tournament this weekend as well.

The Louisville Male game is actually on the 30th. 20th and 23rd are both open dates for St. Henry.

Brossart v St. Henry just added for Friday night @ St. Henry.

Should be a good close game. I am going Scott 3-2. Hopefully cards and officiating aren't an issue, but sometimes that depends upon the players too.

I have to say that a lot has been said lately about the Boone County program. I saw a clean game played last night. Mayberry is a very good player and I hope that you guys are able to pull everything together now that you are back to full strength again.

I agree that you should not turn this into a possession drill, but I see no harm in playing the reserves to get them playing time. Why endanger a "star" player or players in a game which is clearly lopsided. The main argument that people make against playing high school soccer instead of playing with their club year round is that the play is inferior and the risk of injury rises due to this. When you are in a situation where you clearly have the game in hand against a team that can't compete, why risk losing your top players to a frustrated/reckless player on the other team? What happens if your "star" player gets hurt with the score 8-0 in a meaningless game? What would your thought pattern be then? You would criticize the coach for playing them in a game that was clearly decided. My thought is that you play the game as it was intended to be played, but use your reserve players to get them some ball touches and try to develop them.

I disagree. I don't find anything derogatory about the term "reserve". It is merely a player that the coach has chosen to reserve to play later in the game. There is no connotation that they are a lesser player at all. It could be that the player is just as good as the players who start out on the field, but the coach has chosen to hold them until conditions were more favorable to play this person. Maybe the coach wants to play up their speed by allowing the other players to wear out the defense for 15 minutes or whatever the situation. You are free to use your preferred terminology, but in my opinion "reserve" refers to anyone who doesn't start the game on the field. I don't think that it slights anyone.

I think that it is going to be Ryle 4-0 here. Conner steps up in competition and has difficulty adjusting to the speed of play.

I'm going with a 2-2 tie. Field may be a little slippery still from the rain and mistakes will be made on both ends. I think that both teams are a little underrated at this point.