Houn’Dawgs Bite Blue Jays

The Aurora Houn’Dawgs visited Marshfield Thursday night. The first game between these two teams, very early in the season, ended in a 2 – 2 draw so both teams were out to establish themselves in this run up to the upcoming Class 2 District 5 playoffs beginning Saturday. It was senior night for the Blue Jays and their lone senior, John Dylan Chastain, was called upon early for his leadership when he cleared a ball off the line in the 7th minute. John also had two good opportunities to score in the final four minutes of the match when he moved up from his sweeper position, including a fine header on a cross that is pictured on the Flickr site.

Marshfield opened the scoring in the 23rd minute when freshman Willis Zirschky, showing a lot of poise, picked up a loose ball off a failed clearance and snuck a ball into the near corner. The opportunity was created when freshman Craig Obermaier refused to let a ball roll out and collected it near midfield and sent it forward. Craig’s effort was emblamatic of the play the Blue Jays showed in this game, in particular during the first half, when the team worked hard to implement the system of play drilled into them this season by Coach Paulsell and Geoff Meiss. The challenge they faced was confronting the athletecism and speed of the older Aurora team.

The speed killed when in 32nd minute senior Adam Klega broke in on goal from a long ball he collected from fellow senior Nick Hunter. The pressure increased as well when only two minutes later sophomore Steven Young put his 25 yard shot just left of the upright. The Blue Jays defense stiffened however and the game remained tied at 1 -1 entering the second half. The game winning goal, scored by freshman midfielder Taylor Jadlow, came in the 53rd minute and was started by senior Erik Pierce who pulled the strings in the middle for the Houn’Dawgs all night. His throw-in was an inventive and creative sight, thrown low and hard to take advantage of the hard surface and it found it’s target near the top of the box. The shot that followed deflected to the left side and Taylor’s overlapping run found him unmarked and in position to get the winner.

Four minutes later Adam Klega almost had his second on another breakaway but GK Cody Knapp came out to challenge and held his ground on the hard shot. The next time Adam met Cody it resulted in a collision in the box and sophomore Luis Rios was there for Aurora to pick up the loose ball and slot it into the net for the third goal of the match and Luis’ first goal of the season as evidenced by his celebration. If I didn’t know better, I’d have guessed he might still be carrying that ball to school tomorrow. That was in the 61st minute and Aurora added another by Adam later before Marshfield got one back by freshman Austin Fairbairn. Austin was a key playmaker for the Blue Jays Thursday evening and handled the majority of the set pieces. On this one, from just outside the box, he snuck a hard low shot to the near post as the GK struggled to get to it to no avail. The final tally came on a late PK and was scored by Erik Pierce.

It was an entertaining match and it offered some very positive news for both teams, in particular the Blue Jays, based upon the progression I saw from a team that on this evening in particular was made up of freshmen and sophomores. Good luck to both teams as they enter District play.