OAK HARBOR – Despite taking a quick two-goal lead Thursday, the Fremont Ross boys soccer team needed to blow that lead in order to fully invest itself into the game.
The Little Giants regrouped themselves in the second half of their match with Oak Harbor and returned home with a 4-2 win over the Rockets.
Brady Wolfe
“As bad as it is to get scored on…it was at least the wake-up call we needed to get guys moving a little bit quicker and more aggressively,” coach Alex Coressel said.
Ross jumped out to a quick lead when Isaac Minor scored just four minutes in. The Little Giants added to their lead 12 minutes later when Tim Mosser made it 2-0.
“Kind of like what’s been our M.O. this year when we score a couple goals quick, we try to get fancy and try things we don’t need to be doing,” Coressel said.
Oak Harbor trimmed the deficit down to 2-1 at halftime then tied the game in the opening minutes of the second half.
With its lead vanished, the Little Giants went back to playing the type of soccer that has them with a 9-6 overall record.
“It kind of woke our guys up after that,” Coressel said. “We were getting on the attack more and played down in their end for a good portion of the second half.”
Dylan Brady scored midway through the second half to retake the lead for the Little Giants then, with 11 minutes remaining, Brady Wolfe provided an insurance goal to preserve the win.
Wolfe’s play Thursday encapsulated the Little Giants’ ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ game as his second half performances shined brightly compared with that of his first half play.
“I called him out at halftime,” Coressel said of Wolfe. “He had a not-so-good first half and a very dominant second half. He won a whole lot of balls in the midfield for us and got us moving forward. The goal he scored was on a ball that he was aggressive and went after, laid it out on the outside and Isaac Minor hit a ball back in and he got on the end of it and finished it.”
The Little Giants play the final game of the regular season Saturday as part of a doubleheader with the Lady Giants. The boys begin play at 1 p.m. while the ladies will follow at approximately 3 p.m.