Lansing Everett came to town today for a rare Saturday match. This was going to be a tough match between two good teams and they were both ready for it. The first half was a back and forth affair with both teams fighting to gain the upper hand. A large portion of play was held in the middle of the pitch with occassional breakthroughs into either side's defensive zone. Ionia drew first blood when Gage Flanner sent a ball to Devon Reyes who made a mazey run in on goal and put the ball behind the keeper to make it 1-0. That gave us a big lift as we went into half-time. 

We began the second half by committing to win more 50/50 balls and also focusing on more quick passing combinations. I think we achieved those objectives fairly well and for a long stretch it looked like we had the advantage. Zane Sarka punctuated the lead early in the half with a solo run outworking his defender to slip the ball past the keeper to make it 2-0. About midway through the 2nd half our focus dipped and we made some errors that Everett pounced on and took advantage of. In quick succession they had two goals of their own and now we were tie at 2-2. It would have been easy for the guys to pack it in and settle for the tie but it never would have felt right so they kept their heads up and kept driving forward with the intention of scoring that game winner. With around 3 minutes left in the game, Aidan Derusha came out of a scrum in midfield with the ball and heard the shout from Devon Reyes who had already reacted and began his run on goal. Derusha slipped a well-weighted pass into Reyes who completed his breakaway run with another ball in the back of the net to make it 3-2. And that is how the game would end with another hard earned victory to extend our season record to 9-2.   

Stats at a Glance
Ionia 3 - Everett 2
Shots: 5

Goals:
Devon Reyes 2
Zane Sarka 1

Assists:
Aidan Derusha

Kyle Jones - Gets the win with 6 saves. 

Overall Record: 9-2-0
Conference Record: 2-1-0

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Missing from The Bath match report, we had first high school career goals by Carter Castillo as well as Jose Carlos. Both first year freshman players.
Sophomore Gage Flanner also scored his first goal of the year and second of his career.