East Kentwood Soccer: EK in the News: 2007 Men - Falcons too strong for Huskies

2007 Men - Falcons too strong for Huskies
August 31, 2007 Advance Newspapers

With the humidity high and the temperature reaching well into the eighties, the two teams from East Kentwood and Forest Hills Northern met on the artificial turf at Pat Patterson field in Kentwood.

East Kentwood takes a 4-0 record into the match.  They defeated Portage Central, Kalamazoo Central, Lowell and Stoney Creek.  Both Stoney Creek and Portage Central will be ranked in the top ten in the state.  Northern had a 1-2-3 record going into the game.  They defeated Mt. Pleasant, lost to Caledonia, Bloomfield Hills Andover, and tied East Lansing and Mona Shores.  Coach Jamie Bogart has put together a very difficult schedule with ten out of their twenty games against ranked teams from last year.

"We are playing a tough schedule to challenge an inexperienced team," stated Bogart.  "We can only learn if we play the best."

The game began with a strong offensive attack by the Falcons.  During the first half it took the Huskies 26 minutes to make their first attack on the Falcon goalie, Mike Sweers.  In the first half it was all Falcons as they were able to keep the ball in their scoring half of the field almost the entire half.  With seven minutes off the clock Carlos Esquivel of Kentwood launched a long cross from left middle that soared over all defenders, attackers, and the Forest Hills Northern goalie to land in the goal at the far post for the first score.

The Husky defense tightened up and squelched many Falcon attacks on goal as they continued to frustrate Kentwood's front line.  Kentwood coach John Conlon yelled from the sideline "off the ball, let's start moving," and within a minute the Falcons' Esquivel scored the second goal with nineteen minutes remaining in the half.  Esquivel moved up from sweeper to center mid as he slashed through the defense to stuff the goal inside the lower right post.

With the score 2-0, the defense held the Falcons at bay.  Led by juniors Aaron Lee and Jack Duiven, along with sophomore Parker Bush from Northern, Kentwood was able to penetrate into scoring position but unable to score.  Northern's goalie junior Danny Zbikowski went down from a hit to the nose and he had to sit out the remainder of the half but was replaced by Alec Boyd, who continued to take the bombardment from the Falcon feet.

Northern midfielder Matt Dale and sophomore Carter Francis showed some fancy footwork as they stole the ball from the Falcons and raced to the Kentwood goal for a fine offensive move.  The goal attempt was wide, but the Huskies showed new life.

Showing other skills was the combination of the Barone twins from East Kentwood.  Domenico received the pass from a side throw-in.  It landed on his head and after a couple of bounces off his forehead he flipped the ball and it landed on his brother Mark's foot, as he touched and fired the third Falcon goal.  Domenico scored again with 1:59 remaining on the game clock to make it 4-0 at half time. 

At the beginning of the half, Zbikowski returned to the goal for Northern but that didn't stop the Falcons as senior Kyle Rider passed to Domenico Barone for the fifth goal of the game with only 5:55 gone in the half.

Kentwood's sixth goal was scored by Mark Barone with an assist from junior Daniel Nederhoed.  The scoreboard read 13:48 minutes remaining in the game and the score was 6-0 in favor of the Falcons.  The Huskies had a direct kick shortly after the goal but they were unable to score as the shot on goal went just wide.

Forest Hills was able to get on the board with a goal from Parker Bush with 3:58 remaining in the game.  Coach Bogart gathered his team after the game to go over the game.

"If we would have played the total eighty minutes like we did the last twelve it wouldn't have been a 6-1 game.  We just need to keep the intensity up for the entire game, but I am proud of the way our energy rose at the end of the game," stated Bogart.  "We learned a little bit tonight about what it takes to play at this level."

Northern will take a few days off as the team prepares for their game against conference foe Hastings Thursday.

Conlon was happy with the way his team is coming together so short in the season. Led by 10 seniors and the skill level of two very talented freshman, Dzenan Catic and Nermin Crnkic, the Falcons will continue to improve in the season.  Kentwood will take on Grand Rapids Christian on Tuesday before opening the league play against Jenison on Thursday.