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Saints roll in soccer opener, win 8-0 over Walton-Verona
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By TONY BOYD For The Ledger Independent
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Despite losing two of their top scorers from last season, Nick Anderson and Chris Owens, it looks as if the 2008 St. Patrick Saints have plenty of firepower to make up for the absence of the dynamic duo.
In their soccer season opener against Walton-Verona at the Tom Browning Boys' and Girls' Club, the Saints found the net early and often and went on to post an 8-0 shutout that gave first-year coach Father Ivan Kalaumzi his first victory.
St. Patrick posted four goals in each half and finished the game with 28 shots on goal and held the Bearcats to only three attempts, none of which were serious threats.
“We stuck to our game plan,” Rev. Kalaumzi said. “We executed it well. We had a lucky opening goal and that got us in the game and that was very important because it gave us confidence.
“Zboy Oluwaremi accounted for three of the Saints' goals, all of which came in the first half when St. Patrick took the commanding lead. However, it was Cody Burton who jump-started the Saints when he converted a corner kick by Edward Jimenez into a goal with a nice header that got by Walton-Verona goalkeeper Peter Lussi. As it turned out, that was the beginning of the end for the Bearcats.
About three minutes later, the Saints struck again when Oluwaremi found the net on a penalty kick, which the Saints were awarded after Walton-Verona committed a handball penalty in the box. He then went on to score his final two goals in the 19th and 30th minutes. The first of those was a header off a corner kick from Burton.
The latter goal came after the Saints cleared the ball which resulted in Oluwaremi facing Lussi one on one.
“Even though we scored a lot today, we still miss Nick (Anderson) and Chris (Owens),” said Father Ivan. “They were great players for us for so long. But, we're trying to move on and build with the guys that we have. These guys picked up some tips from them and they are building on that.”
After the halftime break, the Saints quickly picked up where they left off. After two near misses in the opening minutes of the half, Daniel Yeary joined in the scoring fun when he rebounded a miss by a teammate with a goal that put his team up 5-0 in the 48th minute.
Ten minutes later, Jimenez showed his ball-handling skills with a breakaway goal that doused any hopes that the Bearcats may have had of coming back.
Yeary and Brian Flores then rounded out the scoring with goals in the 74th and 78th minutes.
Had it not been for several nice saves by Lussi, the score would have been even more lopsided. He finished the game with 11 stops. Stephen Mason and Flores split time in the goal for the Saints and spent most of their time watching the action from afar as the Saints controlled the ball for the majority of the game.
St. Patrick will be idle until Aug. 28 when it be on the road at Russell.
Goals: Oluwaremi 3, Yeary 2, Flores 2, Jimenez, Burton. Shutout: Mason and Flores. Records: St. Patrick 1-0, Walton-Verona 0-1. |
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