Gallery by Tina Laney
Thursday night at H.B. Thomas Field in Shady Spring it was a clash of top-four ranked boys soccer teams in the state.
Over the course of 80 minutes, Point Pleasant showed why its sits atop the Class AA/A rankings this year.
Scoring a pair of goals in each half and dominating the possession in the match, the Big Blacks beat the No. 4 ranked Tigers 4-1.
“We do a good job of possessing the ball,” Point Pleasant head coach Chip Wood said. “If we can play with possession at a high rate of speed, we can play with just about anybody.”
To enhance his team’s speed, Wood made a formation change which has paid off the last two contests. Prior to the win Thursday, the Big Blacks topped St. Joseph Central by the same 4-1 margin.
“Not that we had to make a change, but we weren’t getting done what we needed to get done,” Wood said. “The possession has really picked up and the pace of play has really picked up. The pace of play has been the big thing.”
The night started a little rough for the Tigers with an own goal in the 15th minute.
The deficit doubled for Shady Spring shortly thereafter when sophomore Joey Pinkerton found the back of the net for a 2-0 lead.
“They are a skilled team and they move the ball well. Their shape is so nice and they know what they are trying to do,” Shady Spring head coach Josiah Smith said. “I felt like we had periods of the game where it was evenly matched, but those periods were not long enough tonight.”
The lone bright spot for the home team came in 27th minute of play on a nice move from senior Michael Vecellio to cut the lead in half.
“I give total props to Point Pleasant. They are well-coached and skilled at every position,” Smith said. “There is not one spot where a guy is weak that we could attack. They are really solid.”
In the second half, Shady Spring could not generate any offense against the offensive pressure of the Big Blacks.
“We had them pushed back pretty good,” Wood said. “I wish we would have possessed the ball a little more in our offensive third. We get in a hurry when we get down there near a goal.”
Approaching the midway point of the second half, Kolby Frum knocked in a corner for a 3-1 advantage.
“Kolby makes our near post run. He said it played off him, then off the defender,” Wood said. “It was heading towards the goal, so it is probably Kolby’s goal.”
Leonard Bernsteiner capped the scoring in the 63rd minute for the final margin.
“We were really close on a few really nice chips and through balls that were played in the offesnive third. We just didn’t finish any of them,” Wood said.
Shady Spring keeper Jack Billeter handled 27 balls in the scoring third and made numerous big time saves to keep the Tigers in the match.
Point Pleasant (12-2-3) has earned a spot in the state tournament each of the last three seasons. The last two years have been runner-up finishes. The Big Blacks look well on their way to a fourth appearance in Beckley in early November.
“We are healthy right now, but we have two tough games coming up. We have East Fairmont Saturday and Marietta (OH) Tuesday,” Wood said. “Marietta beat us earlier in the year and they are outstanding. We just have to keep working on our pace of play.”
Shady Spring (12-4-1) entered the match on a seven game win streak. Although his team came up short Thursday, Smith likes what he sees at this point in the season.
“I am so proud of these guys. They work so hard and they are getting so much better,” Smith said. “I see the progress and it is so good to play the best teams. That way we can see we have more room to grow.”
Shady Spring will play sectional rival PikeView Tuesday. The Panthers beat the Tigers 1-0 in Gardner, just over two weeks ago.
