Memphis Commercial Appeal Dandy Dozen 3/31

[DragonSoc]

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/20 ... artner=RSS

 

 

School/ Record

 

1. St. George’s/ 4-0-0

 

2. Briarcrest/ 2-1-0

 

3. White Station/ 1-0-1

 

4. CBHS/ 1-2-1

 

5. MUS/ 2-0-1

 

6. Cordova/ 3-0-1

 

7. Kingsbury/ 5-0-0

 

8. Collierville/ 5-0-2

 

9. St. Benedict/ 2-1-1

 

10. Arlington/ 2-1-1

 

11. Houston/ 1-2-0

 

12. Germantown/ 1-1-1

 

Rankings and records through Wednesday’s 3/31 games.

[loveusasoccer]

Memphis soccer is really balanced this year. Usually you can count on CBHS and Houston dominating things, but the talent is really scattered this year.

In my opinion MUS is the most well rounded of the teams. The are upper class dominated and have a lot of club talent (Baker, Utkov, Levy, Montsinger). They lack a consistent scorer at striker, but they are very dangerous on set plays because of their size and their coach gets the most from his players. Briarcrest has good leadership and play from Ballard and Hendrick, but they have no depth. They go about 8 or 9 deep and do a pretty good job or filling in spots with football players or players that want to work hard., but they have yet to get their top 9 on the field at the same time. They were down 3 senior starters against St. Georges Thursday and the season is only a couple weeks old.

CBHS is very talented. They have their usual 75 or so club players to chose a team, Banks, Roberts, Labetti, Franklin, Gardea, Wilson. They have many ODP players, 2 of which are regional players. They might struggle with leadership as they lost 12 seniors last year and maybe the burden of defending the state title is a little pretty heavy. They will be playing MUS Thursday without Banks and Gardea because of red cards handed out late in their Briarcrest lost. MUS will also benefit from Banks being gone to England the second time they play. Look for CBHS to get stronger as the year goes on. They still have way more talent and a deeper bench than any other team in the area.

St. Benedict is in a rebuilding year. Losing polished seniors to graduation has left only a few club players. Tucci and Wagner are both strong club players with ODP experience.

St. Georges is very strong. They have plenty of club talent and a great coach. Sims, Schneider, Parks, Michalak, etc, give them plenty of experience. They also have nice size except at keeper. Look for them to do very well.

ECS also has a nice group of club players. They have Linn, Gagnon, Van der Voort, Crockarell, and Wilson plus more club players. They will really be tough in their new division.

Whits Station, Collierville, and Cordova look to be the strongest of the public schools.

White Station has a wonderful core of players with Edelman (Both), Brown, Felsenthal, Shibata, and Lenoir. They have tough experienced club players.

Collierville is an interesting team. They have plenty of club and ODP talent. I know nothing about their coach. They should have be really strong. Hensley, Thornbury, Stewart, Lesnick, Carbognani, etc, etc give them a balanced dangerous attack.

Cordova has a really tight group. They have Prieto, Abdo, Hassan, and Fausey controlling their midfield and forward spots. Their are also pretty strong at sweeper.

Houston will get better as the season goes on. They are young and it will take them awhile to gel. Their coach works harder than any other in Memphis. He will get going in the right direction.

Anyway, should be an interesting year. I predict MUS and White Station will end up being the top two teams.

[mrh11]

ECS takes on White Station this Thursday at Mike Rose. It will be a good game and we should start to be able to see how well these 2 could do this year.

[Tribefan2]

Does anyone have any info on the Rivalry Classic Apr.16-18 in Memphis. I've tried to find a website to see what teams are playing and the times scheduled?Looking forward to the tournament.

[mad dawg]

loveusasoccer - Thanks for the post...excellent insight.

[CougarSally]

Waiting to hear the sob story....Go Briarcrest!!!

[loveusasoccer]

MUS played really well. They had lots of success in the air and controlled much of the game. Fouls kept the game slow paced. Seemed like MUS was lining up for free kicks, corner kicks, or long throw INS the entire game. Briarcrest hustled all over the field and their keeper is playing like he owns the box. MUS had a couple nice shots. Sam Henke had their best shot, but it was right to the keeper. Briarcrest got a red card with about 15 to go and moved Davis to midfield and Ballard to sweeper. Both ran themselves ragged. Injuries once again are mounting up for BCHS. Goin had to stop early in the second half and Hendrick played so tough going in and out of the game with a hurt knee. Their status for the next couple games is uncertain. The PK was awarded on a foul when the MUS goalie was called for a foul in the box. MUS still looks to be the team to beat. They were unfortunate in this one.

Briarcrest will have to play both MUS and CBHS again this year.

[loveusasoccer]

ECS takes on White Station this Thursday at Mike Rose. It will be a good game and we should start to be able to see how well these 2 could do this year.

The ECS vs White Station game should be a really great game. Lots of talent on the field. Beautiful day in Memphis. Hope to get out to watch this one.

[Canesoverhere]

St George 2

Collierville 3

FINAL

Spirited game. Refs found a way to enter buffoon calls late in the second half (both ways...maybe the last was the make-up...had to be).

[mrh11]

FINAL: ECS 3, White Station 3.

 

This was a really entertaining game. 0-0 at half, and WS had the edge. WS came out and scored within a minute in the 2nd half, and then put in another in about 5 minutes. They made it 3-0 a bit later and the game looked over, but ECS went with 3 strikers and bounced back. Van der Voort flicked in a nice goal from about 12 out, and Gagnon ripped one a little later from about 20 out to make it 3-2. ECS kept pressing, and Van der Voort finally tied it up with less than 5 to play when he out-muscled 2 defenders and finished nicely into the corner. White Station is really tough and will do well this year. ECS started slow, but they looked really dangerous in attack once they decided to turn it on.

[loveusasoccer]

Kingsbury-1

MUS-1

 

CBHS-4

St. Benedict-0

 

Briarcrest- 2

USJ- 1

 

Bolton-3

Lausanne-0

 

Arlington- 6

Brighton- 0

[d2asoccer]

FINAL: ECS 3, White Station 3.

 

This was a really entertaining game. 0-0 at half, and WS had the edge. WS came out and scored within a minute in the 2nd half, and then put in another in about 5 minutes. They made it 3-0 a bit later and the game looked over, but ECS went with 3 strikers and bounced back. Van der Voort flicked in a nice goal from about 12 out, and Gagnon ripped one a little later from about 20 out to make it 3-2. ECS kept pressing, and Van der Voort finally tied it up with less than 5 to play when he out-muscled 2 defenders and finished nicely into the corner. White Station is really tough and will do well this year. ECS started slow, but they looked really dangerous in attack once they decided to turn it on.

 

Good assessment. Both teams had key players out. WS took the foot off the pedal at 3 - 0 and ECS made the adjustments in the attack necessary to tie it up. Expect Collierville, Cordova, Kingsbury and Houston out of D1 West and when it's all said and done St George's, JCS and ECS in D2A West with CBHS, MUS, Briarcrest in D2AA West.