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Bouncing back in big way
Updated: September 7, 2011 10:04PM
HIGHLAND — After dropping its first conference loss of the season at Andrean this past weekend, Highland coach Mirko Maric knew his Trojans couldn’t afford a repeat performance Wednesday night against Kankakee Valley.
Highland eased Maric’s concerns, putting together two strong halves and limiting the Kougars to just three shots on goal in a convincing 9-1 win.
Connor Moynihan had two goals and an assist, Matt Dyer scored two goals and Joe Mastej added two assists for the Trojans (3-4-1, 1-1). The Kougars (5-3-3, 1-2) received its one goal from Luis Cazares.
“We needed this win like this after the loss to Andrean where we kind of let up in the second half,” Maric said. “We can’t afford any more conference losses if we expect to contend in conference. The kids were up for it, but we still could have finished better at certain points — there were probably 26 shots at the goalies chest.
“But, overall, we did alright.”
Pablo Baldetti started the scoring for Highland, opening the game with an unassisted goal just one minute into the game — as he took the ball the majority of the field from the sweeper position for an early 1-0 lead. The Kougars responded with their lone goal of the game with 23:50 left in the first half when Cazares scored on a free kick.
A score by Moynihan from 25 yards out, assisted by Oakley O’Day, put Highland back in control for good at 2-1 with 17:59 left in the half. Dyer extended the Trojans’ lead to 3-1 with 6:32 left on a chip shot over Kougars goal keeper Sam Cowsert right of the box from about 20 yards out, which was assisted by Moynihan.
Highland extened the lead to 4-1 with 5:13 to play in the first half, as Mastej maneuvered the ball near the box to Moynihan who faked Cowsert to the right and scored on the left side of the net for the three-goal halftime advantage.
Mike Berg opened the second half for Highland, scoring a goal with 34:55 left in the game with the assist coming from Mastej. Dyer added his second goal of the game a little more than a minute later unassisted with 33:26 left in the game, and O’Day extended the lead to 7-1, scoring with an unassited goal that sailed just over the goal keeper’s head with 26:22 left to play.
Sophomore John Toweson added a late goal, assisted by Joey Goodeve, for an 8-1 lead with 1:06 left. Danny Almillo scored on a penalty kick with 33 seconds left to close out the scoring.
Despite the Highland scoring barrage, Cowsert recorded 20 saves and displayed an aggressive goal keeping pace which was about all that coach Jason Vander Woude could draw on as a positive.
“I can’t say anything bad about Sam tonight,” Vander Woude said. “He played his butt off out there.”
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