Troop Out 2019

Game 1 (1-0-0)

30 August, at Aquinas vs. St. James Academy (1-0)

The night began with the iconic march-in with a new twist in this Troop Out 2019. 

First, (after a classic Bob Scott original prayer) we were blessed with senior, Elise Handley, who has performed all over the place including KU Basketball, as she beautifully sang the National Anthem, following it with a halftime rendition of America the Beautiful. (Wow, catch a bit).

Tonight's intros included Steve reading a short blurb identifying the military service for each player's honoree whose name he was wearing on the back of his jersey. Pretty powerful. (PreGame)

Lisa Stoecklein headed up our parent group that helped BWhite pull off, yet another Troop Out, this one benefitting the Veterans' Community Project. I know we generated a couple of thousand for donation just from T-shirt sales, and fans were very generous in donations last night as well. So it was a very successful fundraising evening.

And our title sponsor, Family Leisure, had the boys outfitted so well to honor our vets. What a great event. 

And the boys improved upon the outcome from last year as they returned the Clevinger/Cobb trophy to Saint Thomas Aquinas, nabbing a 1-0 shutout (Trophy).

And it was the first match, yes, but the coaches did all feel pretty good about the performance, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Zayveon and Max debuted on the wings, and they were both in shutdown mode (And we got great minutes from both Muckerman and Anliker as well).  Farrar, Gabe, and DJ took care of the middle of the defense as we expected. And with Shae behind them, well; pretty stout.

We only scored the one goal, but overall we did seem to be generating some nice opportunities. We created 9 corners, for example. We had 6 of those in the second half where we were probably playing our best soccer. 

We have been awfully excited about our midfield with Kitts, Martin, and Welch starting, and Weinrich and DJ White joining that mix. B. named Drew Welch the BWhite Player of the Match—his play at the 6 just moves us dangerously forward as a team, and I don't how many times he tracked back after losing a ball to reclaim it. 

And as I previously mentioned we did generate 9 corners up top, and we did get off 13 shots. So we do think we have some goals coming.

And St. James is good. So, that makes our evaluation even better. They head to the Fat Cat next week. They play fiercely with talent dotting the field. They will win a lot of games this year, and we will be in a dogfight with them and Southwest to get into the final four. 

But this was an important first step tonight.

(PRIEST SPOTTING)

And we are so grateful to our parents and our school and to BWhite and St. James and their fans for all that they did to provide the boys with such an opportunity to play in a match of this atmosphere.

STATS:

First Half:

Saints: Shots: 5 (3) Corners: 3 (Parker 2, Welch)

Thunder: Shots: 1 (1) Corners: 1

Second Half:

Saints: Shots: 8 (3) Corners: 6 (Parker 3, Eames, Kanakares, Kitts)

28:41 Stoecklein (Farrar lofts the long deadball)

Thunder: Shots: 4 (1) Corners: 1

Player Interviews after the match