mexitucky

Boys' Varsity Soccer - Highlands High School - Fort Thomas, Kentucky - Soccer - Hudl A couple highlights of the 1st half.

Red w/ a penalty. I had discussed it in the Highlands v Holy Cross game, but finally have a photo. The video is on Hudl. Caymon made the most of it, BUT he had the player beat and was getting ready to shoot as his jersey was pulled.

I think that I was wrong in our original debate. Pretty clear red and penalty. My bad, ref is good, I am stupid. Video is really clear, but I can't get it to download. Caymon was about to shoot and nobody had an angle on him.

Let’s not forget that NewCath’s coach was Campbell County’s coach last year. That is a story line in and of itself.

Great running into you.

As for the game, this was a great one for the Birds. This team was the first team to match and surpass their athleticism in places, and that includes Moeller out of Cincy. I knew that Trinity would out possess the Birds, the key was to keep them out of places where they could quickly exchange passes in 1 v 2 defending situations. W/ the speed Trinity possessed up top, the Birds also sat a little deeper to start the game. Trinity went up 1-0 in about the 8th minute. Was he on? Was he off? I was too far away to see, but Highlands staff that was actually on the defensive line was not happy at all. Either way, it takes a good finish and that was what Trinity delivered. That seemed to relax the Birds. They started getting more aggressive in their marking following that. The attack increased as well. C. Stevie got to the middle and was fouled in the center about 25 yards from goal. Carter Holmes took the ensuing free kick and forced Trinity's goalie to make a very nice save diving to his right. I will say this. Jackson Lehrter was put in the Strikers role for the first time all season to play what I call the "Firminio" role, which means run really fast to pressure the center backs with the ball. It increased Trinity's passing tempo and kept their talented back 4 from being able to get their head up. That seemed to help the Highlands D as well as Trinity was forced to pass quicker than they'd like as they were playing out of the back. However!!! Trinity's goalie is a HUGE weapon offensively. He punted the ball on target up to 75 yards w/ no effort. The wind was blowing in his favor, but not enough to take away the belief that he could do that on the regular. Trinity has a complete team. They are fast, physical, and tough. Like my son said after getting nailed on a header, "Those were grown men." It is also like my other son said, "I know most of those kids from club and College ID camps. We can play with them." That is a great belief to have heading into the month of September as they start to gel their midfield. I believe that this group takes that lesson and confidence, and we are looking at a fun season out of the Birds. Good luck to the Shamrocks, having to get out of the 7th is unfair, what a region!

Trinity’s player got a concussion. Elijah is good. Just a cut on his head. No stitches.

Game was called 23:26 into the first due to weather w Trinity up 1-0. Not an official game. I didn’t hear about whether they would reschedule it or not.

That would be real cool.

I wish I knew more about Trinity. Highlands one area of concern is possessing in the midfield. Dunbar and OC were able to control the middle. I am sure that a lot of that was by design to expose attacking fullbacks with their counter attack. I just feel like a team with skill up top will get service through the midfield. On the flip side, Highlands has 4 unique wings in their 4-3-3 that have speed to get behind and a 6’4 point man that holds up well and can make great angled passes to those wings. Highlands will match anyone depth wise and tactically with their staff, so it comes down to which players are better.

On the very 1st play of the game, Huddleston made a stop after a 2 yard run, but watching the feed, I felt the hit. Nothing highlight reel, just a great stick 2 yards from the line of scrimmage where Highlands has struggled to get to the past couple of years. That was nice to see. He is going to be so good this year.

This is my concern w the Breds. They have the weapons all over. Do they have enough bodies up front to face these big teams and play a full 4.

No, in an 8 pt win Kyle Kelly makes a difference. That is the starting OLB and running back.

Keep it up Birds. Put that shine back on the legacy.

As we sit, Highlands has outscored its 5 opponents 17-1. Leading scorers are: Max Farris (4 goals and 3 assists for 11pts); Porter Hedenberg (3/2 for 8pts); Cary Gorrigan (2/1 for 5pts); Caymon Stevie (2/1 for 5pts); Carter Holmes (1/2 for 4 pts); Mike Penrod (1/1 for 3pts); Elijah Stevie (1/1) for 3 pts; Luke Schweitzer (1 goal for 2pts); Alex Ford (1 goal for 2 pts); Adrian Mills (1 goal for 2 pts); Brayden Gillman (1 assist for 1 pt); Nick Fischer (1 assist for 1 pt); Ford Orem (1 assist for 1 pt). Nice and spread out.

This game started pretty crazy. I don't think that Highlands saw the ball after kickoff for about 2 minutes at a time for the first 5 minutes. The Birds got a chance to break about 8 minutes in. Penrod took possession in midfield, dribbled to his right and fed an angled ball into the feet of Caymon Stevie who shot quickly from the top corner of the 18 to open the scoring. Oldham controlled the ball for a little longer as Highlands sat deep. A quick outlet to Porter Hedenberg led to a nice win in a one-on-one down the sideline. He crossed to the far post and Stevie reached his long leg around the defender to poke it home to put the Birds up 2-0. Same dance different song and again Porter found the ball off of a long angled pass from Carter Holmes. Porter curved in a blast from about 20 yards out to the far post to put the Birds up 3-Nil 15 minutes into the game. OC came right back w/ a long ball to #9 who scored to make it 3-1. 3 minutes later, the Birds stormed ahead again. This time Jackson Lehrter crossed to Demetri Sarakatsannis who got the ball to Max Farris for the Sophomore's 4th goal of the season. Literally 3 more minutes later Cary Gorrigan scored on a breakaway. 5-1 was the score at the half. Porter added his 3rd in two games in the 2nd half to round out the scoring.

I will have a write up in the morning. Just to paraphrase, the first 20 minutes saw OC with about 65% possession and Highlands 3 goals. They were clinical on the counter. Lead blew up to 5-1 at half, and the Birds added one more in the 2nd

Tonight the #8 Birds host #10 Oldham County at 8pm in Ft. Thomas. Last year the Birds beat Oldham on their beautiful grass field (no sarcasm, it is an awesome surface). Tonight the Birds host them on the turf. The first 10 minutes for teams that train on different surfaces is always touch and go. After that, they seem to get the hang of the pace of the ball (unless you play at St. Henry and then there is no pace, just run to the ball in the rough). This is Highlands first game of a tough two game stretch that sees them play Trinity on Saturday. The real Highlands is being asked to stand up. I think that the fans will like what where the team is after this one.

I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Highlands was a deep team, but without that All State caliber attacker. Welp, he's back and working his way into full match fitness. Porter just looks different than other players when he dribbles at defenders. He's going to expand the dynamic. Coach Niedert has this group that every player is basically on the same level, but all bring something different. They have a possession group, a stretch the backline group, and a deadball winners group. With his and his staff's ability to find line-ups, they have a chance to really cause other coaches headaches preparing for them. They haven't even messed with a different formation yet. Thursday and Saturday will tell us a ton of what this team can really be.

Cooper came out very energetic. I appreciate Nico’s game and having Grant as the workhorse holding mid gives them a good tandem to link play from. Highlands played the whole roster in the first half. Every player. To me, that speaks volumes to the depth they have. There was very little drop off. That depth paid off as Highlands kept up the pressure in the 2nd and Cooper wore down a little, just enough. Cooper was game tonight for sure. Great effort from them. Their physicality messed w the Birds flow for the first 20 minutes or so. I liked what they gave.

With his first touch of the year, Porter Hedenberg volleyed Max Farris looping cross in to give the Birds a 1 to 0 lead about 20 minutes into the game. Carrie Gorrigan outmuscled two Cooper defenders with about 10 minutes to go in the second (the 81st minute if you will) to extend the lead to 2 to nil, assist Carter Holmes. Pretty physical game. Holmes is lucky his ACL is intact. No problem yellow carding players for dissent, but I would really like to see them given for bad slide tackles. If you want to lay the marker down that your word is law early, great. Dissent shouldn’t be accepted. However, you better govern all of the game then and make sure that you protect the players as much as you protect your ego. Bad tackles end high school careers

If Mike can’t do it, it can’t be done.

Highlands concludes a successful weekend in Lexington with a 2 to 0 victory over Henry Clay. Elijah Stevie assisted Luke Schweitzer who took a nice first time shot to start the second half. 30 minutes later, Stevie scored his first Varsity goal on a play that started with Caymon Stevie dropping a pass to Max Farris for a 10 yard shot that the goalie saved. Elijah Stevie was first to the rebound and buried it. Devin Harris, Drew Cavicini, Garrett Crowe, Alex Foubert, and Ford Orem were stalwarts in front of Nick Fischer in goal. 0 goals in 160 minutes against two good offenses.

They have home run hitters, they have a work horse. They cleaned up the tackling from last week. I think that they are a good dark horse for AA. Only thing keeping them from being legitimate is depth right now.

Congrats Mr Woolf on your first Varsity win!