By Ted Waddell
ELDRED — October 11, 2002 – The hometeam booters of Eldred (7-4-2 overall) eked out a slim 1-0 victory over the Bears of Tri-Valley (3-7-2 overall) in Tuesday’s boys varsity game.
The only score of the match occurred at 20:34 in the first half as the Yellowjackets’ Henry Bosch passed the ball to Devin Weyant, who was able to tip it into the net past the Bears goalie Ryan Briggs from about five yards out.
Jim Nieke anchored the goal for Eldred (20 saves), while for Tri-Valley, the goalies were Briggs in the first half and John Garigliano in frame two (a total of 27 keeper saves).
“It was a good game, with a lot of back and forth,” said Bosch, a 17-year-old senior in his third year as a varsity booter.
“As long as we beat them to the ball, we had control of the game,” he added.
Weyant, a 18-year-old 12th grader, said he was able to push the ball through on the assist from his teammate.
His take on the season?
“We’ve been doing alright,” said Weyant. “I don’t know about winning the sectionals, but we’ll make it there.”
John Schnieder has been playing varsity soccer at Eldred for four years.
“I think we’re having a great season,” he said. “We’re getting better and better.”
T-V Coach Chuck Barnard thought his squad dominated the second half, but just couldn’t finish.
“It was just a matter of getting the passes off and getting the shots on goal,” he said. “That’s all we’ve got to do.”
Asked how he thinks the season is progressing, Barnard replied, “We’ve tightened it up to one or two goal loss games,” he said. “It’s not bad.”
Sixteen-year-old junior Zack Bright took to the soccer field for his first time this season for the Bears.
“We’re doing all right,” he said. “We played well in the second half, but we could have played better . . . we need to start passing more, not just kick the ball.”
Eldred Coach Roger Weyant grinned from ear-to-ear after the match.
“I’m down to twelve guys, and they hustled like crazy,” he said. “The defense played awesome again, just like they’ve been playing all year.
“I guess we get our goals when we have to,” he added. “We’ve been lucky.”