Fairbanks’ Austin Becker (17) moves the ball around a Pleasant opponent. The Panthers won the opening match of the Division III tournament.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Sam Dillon)
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Post-season high school sports can be real pressure cookers.
If you win, you move on and if you don’t, your season is over.
The Fairbanks boys soccer squad is one of those teams that has extended its season.
The Panthers did so with a 2-0 victory over Pleasant on Monday during the opening round of the Division III tournament.
Fairbanks was able to score both goals in the same way . . . off a throw-in.
“We haven’t scored during the run of play, “ said FHS coach Matt Humphrey. “Most of our goals have been scored off set pieces or dead-ball situations.
“We spent a lot of time working on that and today it paid off,” he said. “We got more goals then we gave up.”
The first half saw a lot of back-and-forth between the two teams.
The Panthers kept the offensive tempo high, while their back four kept the ball in Pleasant’s half of the field for the majority of the half.
The results were more offensive chances for the Panthers as they put four shots on goal that test Pleasant’s keeper.
Humphrey said that is something his squad has worked on to keep the legs fresh for the attacking forwards.
“Having a back four who can get the ball and get it back up field makes it a lot easier for our offensive guys not having to run up and down the field,” he said.
Even with the Panthers’ offensive chances outnumbering the Spartans four-to-one, the game went into the half knotted at 0-0.
The Panthers built their offensive pressure for second-half goals.
The FHS attackers continued to hold the ball deep in Spartan territory with play along the wings.
That led to a throw-in near the corner flag. Brendan Baker threw a long toss to the middle of the box where the ball bounced around Sam Keller’s feet on the back side of the goal.
Keller laced the ball in the back of the net with just five minutes gone the second half.
Humphrey said his offense’s persistence really paid off.
“The second half we didn’t really make a whole lot of changes,” he said. “We just talked about what the focus is going to be. We tried to get the ball out wide and we did some of that and had two good thrown-ins.”
The Panthers repeated the effort in a nearly identical situation 13 minutes later.
Baker took the toss where it landed at Jeremy Ziegler’s feet.
A Spartan defender got in position to make the block, but Ziegler placed the ball low to the post side.
Pleasant’s keeper could only get a finger on it as the shot gave Fairbanks a 2-0 lead with 22 minutes left in the game.
The Panther defense, which been effective throughout the game, kept the ball in front of them and allowed only one solid shot on goal the rest of the way.
Humphrey said his team’s depth at defender allowed his defense to play solid.
“Having that back four, we have a bunch of different guys who we can interchange,” he said. “They all understand what they are supposed to do.”
The Panthers will now move on to the next round of the tournament with a home game against Delaware Christian at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.