The seventh-ranked Washington boys soccer team controlled the action all night, and finally punched in a goal midway through the second half to break a scoreless tie en route to a 2-0 victory over No. 12 Linn-Mar Tuesday night at Kingston Stadium.
“I’m happy,” said Washington Coach J.P. Graham. “I never felt like the game was out of our control, but still, when it is 0-0 most of the time, you are just waiting for that one time when somebody makes a mistake. The soccer gods can be brutal sometimes when you are dominating a game and it is 0-0.”
Washington (9-1, 6-0 MVC) dominated the possession and created chances all night against the Linn-Mar defense. But the Lions (5-3, 3-3) often held Washington to long shots, or no shots at all, for the first 60 minutes of the contest.
“We didn’t attack in the proper way,” Graham said. “We were trying to force things over the top, we were trying to force things down the middle.”
Although the Warriors had some kinks in their attack, the Lions' defense certainly made sure not to make it easy for them. Linn-Mar kept players back on defense to counter the powerful Washington attack that had scored 22 goals in its previous six games.
“I don’t think they want to spread the game out too far on us,” Graham said. “I think we are a little bit better if it turns into a wide open game, and that’s what they did. They did a good job of keeping their numbers back, they never really got out of position defensively.”
But the Warriors stuck with it. After a few adjustments at halftime, Washington finally broke through the Linn-Mar defense in the 61st minute when junior Max Versteegh got to a ball just before Linn-Mar keeper George Steil and hit it towards the net. It was unclear whether it was going to get into the goal until Mike Daughtery caught up to the slowly rolling ball in front of the net and booted it in.
“I was outside right and I just went in, took the cross from Max and I just put it in,” Daughtery said. “It didn’t look like it (was going in) to me so I was like, might as well just take it if it wasn’t going in.”
Linn-Mar picked up the offense a little bit after falling behind. The Lions started to push forward to try to equalize the game, but the Warriors would not surrender possession, continuing to push even with the slim lead. That strategy paid off in the 74th minute when senior Brandon Besong found Jack Sundermann for another goal and a 2-0 cushion that all but put the game away.
“I think it just shut them out and put them away,” Daughtery said. "I mean, they kept the pressure up, but it felt to me like they were just out.”
Washington 2, Linn-Mar 0
Goals -- CRW: Mike Daughtery (61st min.), Jack Sundermann (74th min.). Assists -- CRW: Max Versteegh, Brandon Besong.
