SJA Thunder Boys Soccer vs Bishop Miege September 14, 2023, W 2–1: Thunder boys brought their record back to 500 Thursday night at Miege with a great win against a solid Stags squad. Prior to the game Miege honored our hero and former AD and Coach Mark Huppe for his 45 years of serevice in our Archdiocese. In addition to his being honored in our game 1 v Aquinas, he will also be honored agin after this game - he is making the rounds - what a testament to a wonderful man who has impacted so many of us. For those that don't know, Mark's brother Joe for many years has been the long time coach of hugely successful Stag soccer, and turned the reigns over to son Nate Huppe who has kept the Stag empire intact in a big way, with Joe still at his side as assistant. Please continue to pray for Mark and his family. Now onto the game: Miege was very athletic, had a lot of speed and were dangerous on the attack and played well defensively, playing with a sweeper, which you don't see very often these days. Although they focused a lot on defense, and the counter, sacrificing offside trap ability for making sure they were always back, they defended well, but this did open up some space between their defenders and midfielders that we were able to exploit at times, when we transitioned from defense into our attack. At the same time, the way they pressured us causes problems for a lot of the game, but we made some adjustments that helped turn the tide a bit. In a nutshell, it was a great game to watch with two contrasting styles, both teams playing hard for the full 80 minutes. Miege was most dangerous when they transitioned into the attack and played deep through balls to their speedy forwards. They were able to catch us on a few of occasions and were successful at around the 27 minute mark in half two when they converted to make it 1–0. On the restart however, we caught them off guard when Grady Herrington took the initial pass from Sean Schaefer, dribbled four Stags and was fouled just in front of the 18 yard box, but the referee allowed played advantage and as Logan Jones was making a diagonal run from the left, ran onto the loose ball and hit a beautiful bender into the far corner to equalize. Less than a minute and a half later, Avery Amis won a battle in our half of the field on the right wing and played the ball up to Grady once again, who quickly took a few touches and played a perfect through ball to Evan Ediger who made a great diagonal run from right to left as he ran onto the ball about 20 yards out. He and the Stags goalkeeper collided on a 50-50 ball as Evan tried to get a shot off, and the ball deflected to Grady, who calmly settled the ball from about 25 yards out and hit the ball over everyone into the empty net for what would end up the game winner. Both sides traded punches the last 20+ minutes, but the Thunder boys were able to see the game out for a great victory. Although we made some mistakes during the game, including a number of mistakes that led to the first goal, we played very well as a team in this game. We defended much better in our box and final third. Not to slight others who all contributed in a big way, but with a lot of Miege focus on Evan and Grady our other mids really stepped up. Although not mentioned in any stats, this was probably Charlie Fasl and Sean Schaefers best game of the year. The Stags are primed for another title run in 4A an we wish them the best. We also have a lot of banged up boys so we will rest up because we have a gauntlet week ahead of us with Tuesday night at BV Southwest and Thursday night hosting BV West. Check the schedule on the SJA website for details. Thanks for your support and we hope to see you next week! God bless Coach Enna.

Stats:
Thunder:
•Shots (on goal) 11
•Goals 2(Jones 26:40 H2, Herrington 25:30 H2)
•Assists 2(Herrington, Ediger)
•Corners: 3
•Saves 8
•Fouls 7