Late rally comes up short for Cougars

Thursday, September 29, 2011

ROACHDALE -- North Putnam senior Stephen Freund scored a goal in the final home-field match of his career and junior teammate Zach Green added a second goal, but they weren't enough to prevent Monrovia from taking a 4-2 win in a West Central Conference soccer match Wednesday.

Freund scored on a penalty kick from 10 yards out with 20:10 remaining in the second half to get the Cougars (2-13, 0-3 WCC) on the board. It was his second goal this season. Green put his goal into the net on a breakaway with 3:10 remaining.

"We played better towards the end," North Putnam coach David Moeller said. "We had a sense of urgency and we started attacking more. We had some good combinations down the sidelines in the first half, but weren't able to capitalize. We had our moments when we played well and I don't think we played that badly overall. We were a little unlucky."

Monrovia (7-5-4, 2-1 WCC) scored its opening goal from 25 yards out from Joel Hildenbrand, whose flyer hooked and dropped into the net just below the crossbar with 21:58 remaining in the first half.

Freund nearly got North Putnam even with his shot just missing to the left with 18:25 left in the first half.

Monrovia scored its second goal off a corner kick with 14:46 left in the first half. The ball was deflected in front of the goal and went straight out to Blake Bloomer, who blasted a shot on the ground into the net for a 2-0 lead.

North Putnam trailed 2-0 at halftime.

The Bulldogs increased their lead to 3-0 on a penalty kick by Daniel Welty at 37:28 of the second half.

Monrovia's fourth goal was a dribble drive by Zach Langlais, who controlled the ball for about 25 yards and scored from about eight yards out at 33:51.

Green had a breakaway at 25:00, but his shot from in close was stopped by Monrovia goalkeeper Garrett Riffel on a good play. It would have been the Cougars' first goal and the goals by Freund and Rfifle that followed would have put pressure on the Bulldogs and given North Putnam momentum.

North Putnam honored seniors Freund and Dustin Trinkle, who played well defensively, at halftime for their contributions to the program.

It was the final regular season game for the Cougars. They play Covington at West Vigo in the sectional opener Wednesday starting at 8 p.m.

At North Putnam

Monrovia 2 2 -- 4

North Putnam 0 2 -- 2

First Half

M -- Hildenbrand at 21:58.

M -- Bloomer at 14:46

Second Half

M -- Welty (penalty kick) at 37:28

M -- Langlais at 33:51

NP -- Freund (penalty kick) at 20:10

NP -- Green at 3:10