Greencastle boys' soccer loses to Tigers

Friday, August 17, 2007

In varsity action Thursday, the Greencastle Tiger Cubs suffered their first loss of the season dropping its game to the visiting Lebanon Tigers.

The senior laden Lebanon team took advantage of their size and physical play early, with goals coming from Brad Hardwick and Chris James to take a 2-0 lead. Lebanon then extended their lead 3-0 with another goal off the foot of Andrew Hodges with 13 minutes remaining in the first half.

"We knew going into the match they were a very experienced team and play a physical game. They started nine seniors and we did not match up well to their size or intensity early on," GHS coach David Lilly said.

The Tiger Cubs fought back though as Greg Lilly was able to beat keeper James Dulhanty and pass the ball back to a charging Pat Eiteljorge who found the back of the net with nine minutes to go in the half. Griffin Moore delivered a crossing ball which was nicely headed in by Lossan Jones to put Greencastle back in the game 2-3 with six minutes left until the break.

Unfortunately, Lebanon senior Chris James connected on his second goal of the match just minutes later to put the visitors ahead 4-2.

"Their goal just before half really hurt us. We finally realized we could play with them, had the momentum, and it would have been helpful going into the second half to only be down one goal," Lilly said.

The Tiger Cubs came out stronger the second half and kept pressure on the Lebanon goal throughout the period, but neither team was able to score and the game ended 4-2.

" We talked at the half and knew we could not allow another goal if we were going to come back and win the match. We gave them a couple of easy ones in the first half and felt we could get them back There were several excellent opportunities for us in the early minutes of the second half, but we just missed. I was proud of the team for not quitting when we got down 3 goals. It could have easily turned into a route but we made a contest out of it. It was a learning experience and we will be ready to play with more intensity next week," Lilly commented

The Tiger Cubs (1-1) will travel to Crawfordsville on Tuesday to take on the host Athenians at 5 p.m.

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