Document text
- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels October 13, 2004 Ashland boys kick around Comets By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings The Ashland High boys' soccer team realized the squad would have to ratchet things up a notch or two after its stunning 3-1 loss to Grants Pass last Tuesday. Give the Grizzlies a week of practice, a Saturday bye and, just like that, the team appeared back on track against Crater on Tuesday afternoon, dominating the Southern Oregon Conference match 6-1. "Now we're on the right track," Grizz coach Eisa Tiaa Toutou said. "I guess we learned our lesson from the Grants Pass game." Ashland (7-2 SOC), which now holds a half-game lead on second-place North Medford in the SOC standings, led 2-0 at half and out-shot Crater 42-9. The sole Comet goal came from a dead-on penalty kick in the 67th minute. "It's nice to take all of those shots," freshman striker Logan Steinfield said. "Because our last game was such an upset and letdown, we really wanted to win today." The one-on-one match-up between Crater forward Gabrielle Lazzari and Grizz keeper Greg Cross brought the Comets back into the game at 3-1, but the Crater offense couldn't penetrate the Ashland half of the field with any success. "We worked really hard today," senior Grizz midfielder Corey Costantino said. "From here on out we can't make any mistakes." As the SOC regular-season winds down, Ashland still has key matches against North Medford (Saturday in Medford) and defending state champ South Medford (Oct. 19 in Ashland) - then comes the jump right into the state playoffs. "From now on, we're counting on winning every game we play," Tiaa Toutou said. "It's simple. We need to focus and be confident and just play hard." How it worked Ashland chose to hold out Fabian Garcia-Flores and senior striker Thomas Golding, who have been responsible for the majority of the Grizz goals this fall, through the first 24 minutes of play. In that time, sophomore wing Rodrigo Ramos drove up the right side of the field to score an unassisted goal and put Ashland on the board. Just three minutes later, in the 25th minute, the Grizzlies executed a perfect penalty kick to boost their lead to two. Facing a wall of four Crater defenders and Ramos on the edge of the keeper area, junior striker Cory Fisher took the PK and tapped it right, to senior wing Bradley Case. Ramos eventually got the ball back and scored for a 2-0 Grizzly lead. "That's one of the tricks in the bag," Toutou said. "We're going to look at this more and more." Ashland has been looking for the element of surprise in the team's playing strategy. Keeping Garcia-Flores and Golding out of the mix for a bit was another diversion tactic they employed. "I'm trying not to give the team the format of our game," Tiaa Toutou said. The second 40 minutes saw more Ashland ball control and absolute dominance by the Grizz offense. Garcia-Flores scored twice in the last three minutes, Golding notched a goal in the 49th minute and Costantino drove one through with 17 minutes remaining. "We're good at taking shots," Toutou said. "But we're not good at putting it away." The Grizzlies will redouble efforts to sink the ball in the net against South and North, hoping to capture the SOC title at the end of the month. "If you can control the ball, you can do anything else," Tiaa Toutou said. "If you know that you can put it where you want it." Water Polo The Ashland water polo teams made the most of their lone home games of the season, sweeping the combined Medford teams in both boys and girls competition at the Jackson Wellsprings Pool on Tuesday. Junior Julia Coke and senior Ursula Barton each scored five goals to lead the Grizz girls (7-7, 5-1 Southern League) over Medford 11-0. Corinna Morrison had 11 saves to earn the shutout in the net. For the boys, freshman Matt Lipski sparked Ashland (8-6, 5-1 Southern) to a 12-1 win with five goals. Junior Jeremy Johnson had two goals, an assist and two steals. Neils Gossens scored Medford's goal. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams