Columbus North came out in the second half with much more intensity and aggression in its matchup with Perry Meridian Tuesday at Max Andress Field.
If only the Bull Dogs could have showed that same intensity in the first half.
North came out flat in the first half and fell behind by two goals. The deficit was cut in the second half, but the early hole proved to be too deep in a 2-1 boys soccer loss.
“We just have to put 80 minutes together,” North coach Tom Pollert said. “Once we put 80 minutes together, I think we’ll flip some of these scores around where we’re winning 2-1. We’re close. We have our work cut out. We’ll train this week, and we have Carmel Friday. We have to put 80 minutes together, and we’ll be a lot better.”
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The first half was all the Falcons. Perry Meridian put 10 shots to one for the Bull Dogs (3-5).
With the Falcons controlling the possession early, they finally broke through in the 24th minute when Josh Hlei scored a goal from the left side to put them ahead 1-0.
Hlei would extend the Perry Meridian lead in the 35th minute. He was wide open on the left side when the ball came his direction. His shot attempt just made it inside the right post to make it 2-0.
North flipped the script in the second half, giving itself plenty of shot opportunities in the early going. The payoff came for North in the 57th minute from a corner kick. The ball went in the box and took several deflections off of players from both teams. The ball eventually found its way to Luke Schneider, who then aimed it right at the net to cut it the lead 2-1.
“We definitely came out much better in the second half,” North freshman Flynn Keele said. “The intensity, the attitude and our effort levels were way up.”
The Bull Dogs had several more chances at getting the equalizing goal in the final 10 minutes of regulation.
In the 72nd minute, Graham Keele missed a free kick just to the left of the post, Nathan Imlay missed a kick wide left in the 73rd minute and a corner kick opportunity in the 76th minute ended up hitting the left post, but bounced out.
For the game, North had 12 shots, with three on goal, while the Falcons took 17 shots with 11 on goal. Bull Dog goalkeeper Colvin Iorio recorded nine saves.
“In the second half, we had much stronger aggressiveness because we were down a goal,” North freshman Anthony Johnson said. “If we would have came out as aggressive (in the first half) as we did in the second half, we would have had better results.”
