The Rising Sun boys soccer team opened the season with a 2-1 triumph over Elkton in a physical game Thursday, September 17. Kane Watson scored the eventual game-winner with 11 minutes remaining in regulation off a scramble in the box following a corner kick. "It was kind of bouncing around in the box and it landed right to me," said Watson. "I took the shot and it went in." Elkton had tied it in the 58th minute when Brady Simon converted a penalty after a Rising Sun foul in the area.
"We gave them that goal," said Rising Sun coach Ken Ulrich. "Other than that, I think defensively, we shut them down. If you look at possession, we obviously maintained the ball. They had fast breaks, kick and run kind of thing. We possessed the ball. I think we got in trouble when they got us out of our game and into their game, the kick and run and the whole physicalness of it." Ulrich was not pleased with either the penalty kick call or the way tensions escalated as the game went on. "It probably was a foul but the problem is there was a foul before that," Ulrich said. "I never want to blame refs for a game, but I think the refs let it get out of hand, both sides. I wish they would've called more fouls. Call fouls on my guys and my guys would've stopped fouling. I think that he should've called more fouls. I think he let the game get out of hand." Some words were exchanged and a Rising Sun player was ejected after an Elkton player was whistled for a foul in the final minute. Rising Sun scored the only goal of the first half when Andrew Parker was sent in on goal by Brandon Denk and Parker slotted a shot inside the left post. Bryce Calhoun played the first half in goal for the Tigers and Chris Orr took over at halftime. As one would expect from a season-opener, Ulrich saw things that need work. "I think we needed to stay in our game a little more," he said. "I think we got pulled out of our game, things that we worked on. Obviously, we need to work on some of our shots. Some of our passes were dropped into their laps. We tend to wait for the ball instead of going to the ball." Ulirch was able to take advantage of his team's depth by substituting in large groups. "It's nice," the coach said. "It might not be quite as strong as it was last year, but it is nice that we can do that. We try to platoon guys so they know exactly where they're going. They get used to playing with the same guys. It keeps them fresh. I've worked both ways where you work guys to death before you sub them and regulation substitution and I always get more performance out of guys who are fresh. So we try to keep them fresh as much as possible." Watson, who also scored a big game-winner at North East last season, says the Tigers can build on the win. "Hopefully it gets the momentum going and we start playing well against the better teams," he said. Comments are closed.
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