Allen East’s Emilio Rettig defends Temple Christian’s Nolyn Wright during Monday night’s match at Allen East. Dean Brown | The Lima News
HARROD — Following a big win, coaches always caution their athletes about having letdowns.
In this past Friday’s season-opener, the Allen East boys’ soccer team recorded a hard-fought 1-0 victory over visiting Kenton.
In Monday’s matchup with visiting Temple Christian, the thought of a possible letdown was probably going through first-year Allen East head coach Russell Bender’s mind.
Just a little more than two minutes into Monday’s contest, Temple Christian’s Alex Patrick made the Mustangs pay by driving in a goal off a penalty kick, which gave the Pioneers a very early 1-0 lead.
However, Allen East eventually took control, in the second half, and pulled away for a 3-1 win over Temple Christian at Goodwin Field.
With the victory, Allen East improves to 2-0 on the young season. Temple Christian slips to 0-2.
“We played sloppy, starting off,” Bender said. “I think we just had to gather ourselves a little bit — from Friday’s game. I think the energy was still there (Monday), but our touches were bad. So, we had to basically organize ourselves a little bit more and get back to the fundamentals with our feet.”
At the 37:52 mark of the first half, Patrick scored off a penalty kick to give the Pioneers the 1-0 advantage.
Allen East struggled to get shots off in the first half.
After the penalty kick by Patrick, a little more than 31 minutes ticked off the game clock before Allen East managed to get a good shot at the goal.
With 6:22 left to play in the first half, Allen East’s Isen Schafer, drove a shot to the back of the net from 20 yards out, to knot the contest at 1 apiece.
The score remained tied 1-1 by the halftime break.
In the first half, Temple Christian got two shots on goal. Allen East mustered just that one shot on goal by Schafer in the first 40 minutes of action.
In the second half, Allen East managed to get three shots on goal, while Temple Christian got two clean shots.
At the 25:35 mark of the second half, Schafer snuck a shot into the left corner of the net off a fast break for his second goal on the night, to give the Mustangs a 2-1 lead.
Allen East put the game away with 6:11 left to play in the contest, when Garrett Jennings drove one into the back of the net, from 32 yards away.
“I thought (in the) second half, we started focusing a little bit more on moving the ball up the field. … That’s just effort – getting to the ball,” Bender said. “Our touches were too many in the middle. So, we had to hurry and get the ball off our feet. Of course, we used Isen’s speed up top, which helped us out a little bit.
“It just seemed like we started to calm down a little bit (in the second half). I just thought our focus started to get a little bit better in the second half once we got that second goal. I think the nerves calmed down a little bit, and everything just started to come together,” Bender said.
For the game, Schafer had three shots on goal, while Jennings had one for the Mustangs. For Temple Christian, Patrick and Malachi Menke each had two shots.
Schafer was part of Allen East’s 400- and 800-meter relays that competed at the Division III state track meet this past spring. The 800 relay won the state title, while the 400 relay placed sixth.
Temple Christian head coach BJ McPheron took some positives from Monday’s loss.
“It’s good to get the first goal of the year. … If he misses that, then maybe our attitude is a little different,” McPheron said. “I appreciate the fact that Alex (Patrick) put it away, to give us the early lead.
“But we knew (Isen) Schafer would be a problem – to keep up with his speed. … He (Schafer) has that ability. But I do appreciate that they played hard. We have a lot of development to do, yet. We have guys from freshmen to seniors that have to continue to get better. All that I can ask is they play hard and compete. I thought we did that, tonight. We came out on the losing end, but we can start there and keep getting better. … It’s still early.”
Bender warned his team before Monday’s matchup with Temple Christian, to put Friday’s win over Kenton in the rear-view mirror.
“I said, ‘We have to be humble’,” Bender said. “Yes, that was a great win against Kenton. … Any time you can win against Kenton, it’s a great win. Kenton is a very well-coached team. But I told them that they have to be humble and think about the next game. We have to take it one game at a time.”
More Temple Christian-Allen East boys soccer photos
Game summary
Goals: Isen Schafer (AE) 2, Garrett Jennings (AE) 1, Alex Patrick (TC) 1
Assist: Manny Rettig (AE) 1
Shots on Goal: AE 5, TC 3
Saves: Zane Newland (AE) 2, Dawson Clay (TC) 0, Jacob Carge (TC) 2
Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451.
