TOLEDO – There are times the final score doesn’t reflect the nature of a game. And there are times when a team needs to keep its eye on the process more than the final result.
Both of those items rang true Tuesday for the Little Giant boys soccer team.
Because while the final scoreboard showed a 10-0 loss to the powerful St. Francis Knights, what it doesn’t show is a competitive 1-0 game at halftime. And while the game will go down in the record book as a loss, coach Alex Coressel sees it as another example of the Little Giant program knocking on the door of becoming more and more competitive in the Three Rivers Athletic Conference.
“We showed last year at St. John’s, and St. Francis only losing 2-0, and technically we won against St. Francis on a forfeit, we can compete,” Coressel said. “Findlay, we haven’t been able to compete with in the past, it’s been a blowout. And this year’s game was close (even though we were) down two guys. Clay, who is a much-improved team, we’re within a goal or two of them.
“We made huge strides and I don’t want to see us go backwards because we’re getting there. We’re starting to be able to compete. And I think we can win these next two at the end of the week here and if we can have two 10-win seasons here, for Fremont Ross soccer, that’d be huge.”
Feeling as though they had nothing to lose, the Little Giants tweaked their lineup, moving some players to different positions. The result was a team that battled from the start. Though St. Francis scored around the midway point of the first half on a disputed call Coressel felt should have been rules offsides, the Little Giants didn’t shrink away, and kept the game 1-0 until the early stages of the second half.
“The guys played extremely well,” Coressel said. “They played super hard. We had a pretty darn good gameplan going in.
“We held them at bay and we had a couple opportunities,” he added. “What I thought should have been a red card was only a yellow, Dylan (Brady) got a breakaway and was pulled down. Our kids, for the first 50 minutes, basically, just played phenomenal.”
As the second half progressed, however, St. Francis used its depth to its advantage, wearing out the Little Giants.
“Our kids flat-out got tired,” Coressel said. “They had six or seven subs they could turn to that are all top-notch players. We were trying to ride our guys that were playing very well and we just don’t have the extra bodies on the bench to have the quality (depth) they do.”
That depth, the ability to rotate players and keep the talent level on the field from dropping off, is what Coressel wants his players to take from Tuesday’s loss. The Little Giants showed Fremont Ross soccer can compete with the league’s big dogs. Beating them, however, will require a year-round effort from throughout the program.
“Our freshmen, sophomores and juniors that were there, they see what we’re capable of so (we’re) just trying to use it as a moment to buy-in,” Coressel said. “In the offseason we have to be working, we have to have as many people playing all the time that we possibly can. And over the summer we can’t take days off. We have to in the weight room and on the track and getting in shape so we’re ready to go for games like this so we can maintain, not just a half, but the entire 80 minutes.”
Coressell also noted the play of senior goalkeeper Caleb Bennison whose performance under heavy fire, like the rest of the team’s play, was far superior to what the final score indicated.
“It was a phenomenal game by everybody,” he said. “Caleb Bennison was getting shelled all night in goal and he really came through. Yes, he allowed 10, but that really isn’t what it sounds like.”
The Little Giants are now 8-6 overall, 2-5 in the TRAC. They play at Oak Harbor on Thursday at 5 p.m. then conclude the regular season Saturday at 1 p.m. at Sandusky.
Ross will play Perrysburg in a sectional tournament game on Thursday, Oct. 18 at Perrysburg.