Devils burn Blazers

On Oct 2, with two key players sitting on the sidelines, the Blair boys' soccer team lost to the Springbrook Blue Devils, 2-0.

Seniors Alieu Terry and Thomas Wild spent the game as spectators. Terry was double-yellow-carded in Monday's game against Northwest High School, and Wild sat out with an injured knee.

The Devils outsized the Blazers, with some Blair players facing opponents half a foot taller or more. Springbrook used this size difference as an advantage throughout the game, consistently winning balls in the air and on the ground because of longer reach.

Blair came into the game still feeling the exhaustive effects of the double-overtime tie with Northwest, another weakness that Springbrook exploited, playing physical ball that wore the Blazers down even further.

The first half was scoreless, but it was evident early on that Springbrook was the dominant team. In the first 30 minutes, the Blazers seemed to have trouble getting the ball out of their half, and Springbrook took shot after shot.

Senior Juan Argueta, along with a Springbrook player, was given a yellow card with 12:00 to play in the first period.

In the last ten minutes of the half, Blair bounced back a little, pushing the ball into Springbrook's zone but, like the Devils, failing to finish. The half ended 0-0.

The Blazers came out fighting in the second half, but lack of finishing power prevented them from scoring against Springbrook's speedy defense and outstanding goalkeeper.

Senior captain Andrew Shoenfeld was given a yellow card in the 52nd minute for arguing with the referee.

Three minutes later, a Devil outran Blair's defense and found himself facing Blair keeper Lincoln Fischer, a senior, one-on-one. He did not waste the opportunity, scoring Springbrook's first goal.

The Blazers refused to give up, with Fischer and others continuing to attack the ball and to be aggressive.

With six minutes to play, forward Justin Craver, a senior, threw the ball in toward the Devil zone, with most of Blair's forwards and midfielders clustered near the net. After a brief struggle for the ball in which the Blazers continually failed to get a shot off, Springbrook's goalie dove on the ball, bounced up immediately, and kicked it far down field.

The Devil forwards, facing only the Blair fullbacks, who were playing very far up the field, sprinted towards the Blazer goal. A Springbrook player finished the breakaway by kicking the ball far out of Fischer's reach into the corner of the net.

With the score 2-0, the game seemed over. The Blazers kept fighting, however, and despite several more opportunities to score, finishing remained an issue.

"Our attack was not clear enough and strong enough to that goal," said Coach Adrian Baez. "We played tough, hard-nosed ball, but we made a few mistakes that cost us."

Baez went on to say that over the next few games he expects his team to work extra hard on finishing. "This is our season right here, this four game streak [against, including today's game, Springbrook, Whitman, Churchill, and B-CC]," said Baez. "We need to get two or three wins against these lions, and they don't come easy."

Blair's next game is at Whitman on Oct 7, at 7:00 p.m.