KENNETT SQUARE – Tom Creighton’s finger nails may be a bit bloody, but the Downingtown East soccer coach is happy nonetheless.
His Cougars went to Kennett on Thursday – just a few days after dropping a tough one-goal match to archrival Downingtown West – and came away with a 2-1 Ches-Mont crossover victory against the Blue Demons.
“Kennett is a tough team, and coming in, I was biting my finger nails,” he said after the win.
“We’ve been winning some games, but I can’t say we’ve been playing that well. I thought we played OK today. We had been struggling in the first half but today we had a pretty good first half.”
It halted a two-game skid as the Cougars are now 10-5 overall, and 4-2 in the C-M National standings. East entered the day 12th in the District 1 4A power rankings and could use a winning streak to end the regular season in order to earn a first round home game.
“We’re coming off two tough losses to Roman (Catholic) and (Downingtown) West. And hey, Kennett can play,” Creighton said. “They have some dangerous players, so the first and second ball today was more important than any game we’ve played.”
The Demons fall to 7-8-1 overall (3-3 in the C-M American) and have dropped two one-goal decisions in a row. Kennett was 26th in the power rankings heading in, and the top 28 will ultimately earn a berth, so the squad is facing a challenge to get in.
“We emphasized those (postseason) implications before the game, and that’s why it was disappointing,” said Demons’ head coach Kevin Lentz. “Because we came out and played a little lackadaisical, a little soft, in the first half. We didn’t have energy.”
Trailing 1-0 at the half, Kennett picked up the intensity and registered the equalizer with 26:44 remaining off a free kick from senior defender John Tuley from near midfield. It bounced around in the box and senior forward Jonatan Mendez deposited it into the back of the net.
“Jonatan has a dynamite shot,” Lentz said. “We encourage him whenever he has a window of space to take that shot because he can turn a game with his finishing skills.”
But about eight minutes later, East regained the lead for good on another set piece or restart. Aseem Rastogi chose to tap his corner kick to teammate David Zea, and he found fellow senior Matt Prendergast near the corner of the penalty area. He fired away and scored with 18:45 on the clock.
“You can’t give dangerous players restarts, but we did and (Kennett) got the equalizer,” Creighton said. “But we have a few dangerous players ourselves, and (Kennett) gave us a few restarts. High school games are won on restarts.”
It happened on a strategy that is a bit different from the way the Cougars’ usually handle corner kicks.
“If things aren’t working, you might as well make some adjustments. Maybe it will keep people guessing and catch them off-guard,” Creighton said.
“Usually on corners we hit it into the box to try to get a header, but it hasn’t been working for us,” Prendergast added. “So we had David Zea and Aseem Rastogi on the ball. Coach (Creighton) told us to play soccer and do whatever you can with it. No (defender) was on me, so David hit a nice ball out to me, I had some time, and took a shot and it went in.
“Having (Kennett) tie it up was big, but we didn’t lose momentum and kept going, working hard and we stayed together as a team.”
No surprise that the game’s first tally was also off a set piece midway through the first half. Junior Braden Noon headed the ball in after East executed a dangerous throw in.
“We picked the energy up in the second half and it showed,” Lentz said. “We just emphasized to the boys that in high school you have got to play 80 minutes of soccer. I felt like we only played 40.
“That’s on us as coaches. We have to do a better job of mentally preparing the boys to come out with a lot of energy because everything matters for us at this point.”
The Cougars had an 8-3 advantage in corner kicks and a 15-11 edge for shots on goal. And importantly, East never trailed so it was able to maintain momentum.
“Corner kicks were a point of emphasis as well,” Lentz said. “Corner kicks are great opportunities for our opposition, and when we give them up, we have to make sure we clear it out.”
Prendergast added: “It’s always a big loss against (Downingtown) West, so it was important to come back out here and do the job today. We were very physical – we did a great job on the ball. It was very important – a statement win.”
The Cougars will wrap up the regular season by hosting Oxford Oct. 13 and traveling to Great Valley Oct. 15.
“Our backs did a good job of defending (Kennett’s) playmakers. They stayed organized, worked off of one another and understood spacing,” Creighton said.
“We left a few too many scoring chances out there, for sure, but it was a heck of a rebound for this group. We are plus-five from last season. We’ve turned three losses into wins and two ties into wins.”
Downingtown East 2, Kennett 1
Downingtown East 1 1 – 2
Kennett 0 1 – 1
Downingtown East goals: Noon, Prendergast.
Kennett goal: Mendez.
Goalie saves: Denning (DE) 10; Teixeira (K) 14.
Source: Berkshire mont
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