Covington opened their soccer season for the first time in decades with a boys-only team thanks to the successful creation of a girls’ squad at the school.
The boys’ team has a new coach in Brennan Crose, a new assistant in Brad Lewsader, a new formation on the field and only a half-dozen returning players with any significant varsity minutes.
What that means is that the start of the season is more of a learning experience than usual and the Trojans have hit a few bumps in the road in the process.
The team opened the season on the road at North Montgomery and came away with a 2-0 win over the Chargers, getting 16 shots on goal according to Crose.
“We had chances, but we need to work on finishing,” he said after the game. “I thought we showed some good things, but we have lots of things to work on. I expected this with a new formation for the team.”
Game two saw Covington host one of their biggest rivals in Faith Christian, a team from Lafayette that has steadily improved over the last few years.
The teams each had chances to score in the first half with neither putting the ball in goal.
That changed about twelve minutes into the second half as Faith Christian went up 1-0 only to see the Trojans tie things up three minutes later when Jackson Frieze was awarded a penalty kick after he was brought down on a breakaway attack.
Eight minutes later, the Eagles again regained the lead with Covington pressing hard from that point on to get the tying goal, but instead it was the visitors who added a late one for a 3-1 final.
Crose said that Faith Christian presented a test that neither North Montgomery nor the Covington JV could do, namely actively pressing on defense and attacking aggressively with one-touch passing on offense.
“We started off playing hard but were chasing the ball and wore down,” he said. “We went back to playing like we played last season – lost our formation and our transition play, particularly in the first half. We did better in the second half, but we couldn’t get another goal to tie the game.”
Crose looked at the Covington schedule that opens with six games in 13 days and said, “We really need a couple of days in a row of practice to fix some of what we saw we did wrong, but we don’t get that. We’ll do what we can, but I consider those first six games learning opportunities.”
On Saturday, Covington traveled to Greencastle to face one of the larger schools on their schedule and fell to the Tigers 3-0 with all three goals coming in the first half.
Crose said his team came out “a little flat” and got out of shape, due in part to the athleticism of the Tigers.
“I thought we settled down in the last ten minutes of the first half,” he explained. “We found our shape. We had some really quality chances to finish and dangerous set piece we just weren’t able to capitalize on. I was more pleased with the second half and I think it’s something for us to build on.”
