FINDLAY – Playing against a conference rival might seem like a strange time to play possum, but the Fremont Ross soccer was focused on the bigger picture Tuesday night.
The Little Giants traveled to Findlay Tuesday night – but also play the Trojans next week in the district tournament. Ross, however, held its cards close to the vest and save itself for the postseason.
So while the scoreboard may have been ugly – and 11-1 loss – it was a necessary evil for the Little Giants to have a shot when the game matters most.
“So even though it sounds really, really bad, it was a lot freshmen played a lot of minutes, a lot of guys that haven’t played mush this season played a decent portion of the second half,” coach Alex Coressel said. “The goalie the last 35 minutes was (Micah Garcia) who has never played goalie – never even played it in practice.
“We didn’t want to tip our hand about anything because we played them in the tournament next Tuesday, we were resting bodies and trying not to play too many guys.”
Isaac Minor scored the Little Giants’ only goal unassisted about eight minutes into the second half, putting the ball in the net off a goalmouth scramble.
Despite the patchwork lineup, Coressel said he saw reasons for optimism the next time the Little Giant face the Trojans.
“Most of the guys played relatively well. Our starters who played, didn’t really start in their positions, played well,” Coressel said. “We had five or six genuine, real good opportunities to score, their goalie had to work, which was nice to see.
“That was part of our so-called gameplan, I guess you could say tonight, not show them a whole lot of what we have, just to go out and play. We saw some good things, which gives us some reasons to be optimistic going into next week.”
The Little Giants are 8-6-1 and close out the regular season at home Thursday against Oak Harbor at 5 p.m. before heading back to Findlay on Oct. 15 at 5 p.m. for the district tournament opener.