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Excitement, leadership lead soccer team
Published 12:02am Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Pure excitement, strong senior leadership and good play on the field have been Andalusia’s catalysts this season in soccer action, Bulldogs assistant coach Parrish King said during Monday night’s practice.
Andalusia won its first three games of the season over Robertsdale (2-1), Mary Montgomery (1-0) and Enterprise (2-1).
Tomorrow night at 6:30, AHS will host Northview-Dothan in a final “tune up” before area play starts on Monday.
King said additional reasons why AHS is doing so well include strong center field play from Hiren and Hiten Patel, and Kevin Rooks, who plays in the back field on defense.
“Then, honestly, our keeper (Chris Smith) has been on top of things,” he said. “The few goals they’ve made have been on a penalty, either on foul situations or corners.
“That’s great we’ve been limiting them to that, but it’s something we need to improve on,” he said.
Andalusia claimed its win over Mary Montgomery on an own goal by its opponent. If the goal hadn’t been scored, then the game would’ve resulted in a 0-0 draw.
King said he wasn’t at the game, but learned that there were a lot of scoring opportunities the Bulldogs had.
In fact, Andalusia had two scoring opportunities early during the Enterprise game, King said.
“One of them was off of a corner,” he said. “After that, we just kind of worked. It was a game where I considered we worked very hard to get what little we got out of that game.”
In the lead up to tomorrow’s home game against Northview, Andalusia has only been working on itself, King said.
“I’m certain they’re going to be a tough opponent,” King said. “I think we’re going to continue to work on moving the ball cleanly to our own players. We have to play our game.
“This is our last chance to better ourselves before we get serious with area play,” he said.
Before Monday’s game, Andalusia will travel to Dothan to participate in a junior varsity soccer tournament.
Bulldogs sophomores and all girls will be able to get a chance to play, King said.
“Right now, we’ve only been able to play starters and this will give us an oportunity to play others,” King said. “We’re excited about the opportunity.”
Andalusia will face Enterprise and Providence Christian in two of its three games on Saturday.
