Bears blank Wolfpack
The Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears cruised past the West Valley Wolfpack 3-0 behind two goals from Junior striker Rhett Bennett on Thursday night at Adair-Kennedy Field.
Bennett got the scoring started in the 9th minute with a pinpoint shot from the top of the goal box off a well-placed through ball from Max Smith to give the Crimson Bears a 1-0 lead.
Juneau-Douglas controlled the ball for the majority of the first half and had a number of scoring chances, but still found themselves leading just 1-nill going into halftime.
Bennett wasted no time at the start of the second half, adding his second goal of the match in the 47th minute after settling a lofty throw-in from Jace Mason, burying the ball into the back of the net to push the score to 2-0 in favor of the Crimson Bears.
"Their defense was playing really tight on the back, but we split them really well. I took them right through the middle and tried to slot them," Bennet said, describing his two goals.
Nathan Fosket tacked on a score of his own in the 61st minute with a nifty goal off a Smith corner kick, bringing the score to 3-0. It was Smith's second assist of the match.
Chris Hoffman, Peter Jorgenson and Phil Murray, who make up the heart of the Crimson Bear defense, kept the Wolfpack attack at bay, and made for a relatively easy job for goalkeepers Taylor Lehnhart and Max Lyons, who shared time in the net.
Crimson Bear coach, Gary Lehnhart said although he felt in some ways his team had been outworked by West Valley, he was pleased overall with his teams performance.
"It's pretty hard to complain about a three to nothing victory, but there were some things about it that surprised me," he said. "I thought early on that West Valley had a lot more energy than we did, and one of the things we try to do every game is outwork our opponent - regardless of who they are. We did better in the second half of raising our energy level, and that helped."
Lehnhart praised the play of Bennett, as well as his defense and goalkeeping.
"Rhett Bennett was very good today," he said. "He was a difference maker on the field both in terms of his scoring, but also his energy. I think you also gotta give the three defenders credit; they shut em out."