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Lions Prevail over Blue Devils

03/16/2011, 5:00am EDT
By Staff

Herrera and Kupstas Keys to Lion Victory; Region 7 Schedule is Underway

Video Highlights

The Varsity Boys played host to the Norcross Blue Devils (4-1-0) at Lion Stadium on Wednesday night in their first Region game of the season.  Coming into the match, the Blue Devil's only loss on the season came at the hands of Lassiter High School, currently Georgia's #1 ranked team in AAAAA.  The Lions came away with the 3-1 victory.  The win takes the Lion's record to 9-0-0 on the season, and 1-0-0 in Region 7 play.

As one would expect in ultra-competitive Region 7, both teams had chances throughout the match.  "Norcross is a good squad," said boys head Coach Ryan Sutton.  "They came to play and they have some talented athletes.  This was one of those games where winning control of the ball was key.  It seemed which ever team had the ball had it for a couple of minutes or longer - which ultimately led to chances."  The match saw both teams playing posession oriented soccer. "We had strong performances from Michael Valenzuela, Justin Sedam and J.T. Taplin to clog up the middle defensively, which disrupted some of the Norcross posession.  Grayson Guldenschuh and Nate Grant felt a lot of the pressure, as Norcross was forced to attack from outside-in," Sutton commented.

Critical to the Lions success was combination play, strong runs from attacking players and a strong performance from Lion senior keeper Mitch Kupstas.  The Blue Devils offense was strong, creating several opportunities for Kupstas to show his stuff.  "Mitch played a strong game," said Sutton, "He made some key saves early and helped guide the defense when Norcross would turn up the pressure."

Senior Goalkeeper Mitch Kupstas makes a save on a point-blank shot in the Norcross game 

Offensively, the Lion midfielders were probing for openings in the Blue Devil defense throughout the match.  In the 21st minute, junior midfielder Juan Herrara finally unlocked the Blue Devil defense when combination play with Senior Chris Cook gave Herrara the space needed to see sophomore forward Jeremy Rector making a strong run down the left side of the field.  Herrara played the ball over the Norcross defense, and Rector was able to fight off a Blue Devil defender to secure a shot, which beat the Norcross Keeper high to his right side and provided the Lions the lead at 1-0.

Eight minutes later, senior defender Sedam took a throw-in at the Blue Devil 30-yard mark.  His in-bound pass found Rector who one-timed the ball right back to Sedam. Sedam played a beautiful, long, left-footed pass to the back post right onto the foot of a charging junior right winger Josh Mahram.  Mahram "buried the biscuit" past the outstretched arms of the Blue Devil keeper for his first goal of the 2011 campaign and a 2-0 Lion lead at the half.

The Blue Devil intensity led to a goal at the 51-minute mark when a ball played over the top of the Lion midfield was deflected onto the foot of Norcross's left midfielder.  He made a diagonal run toward goal and unleashed a low "worm burner" toward goal that found the net past the outstretched arms of Kupstas, cutting the Lion lead to 2-1.

Three minutes later Herrara was there with an answer.  After intercepting a pass in the middle of the field, he played the "ball of the night" with a brilliant through ball that gave Rector room to run.  A strong complimentary run by Cook forced the defense to split up, leaving one defender trying to stop the rush.  Rector held off the defender and beat the charging keeper with a chip-shot into the side netting, securing the victory for the Lion's at 3-1.

Juan Herrara intercepts a Blue Devil pass and finds a seam in the Defense

 

Next up, the Lions take on the Collins Hill Eagles at Eagle Stadium in another Region 7 match next Tuesday night.  Game time is 7:45pm.  Be There! 

Tag(s): Lions News