By Jeanne Sager
JEFFERSONVILLE — October 21, 2003 – The Bulldog offense got clawed.
Sullivan West’s boys’ soccer team (3-11 overall, 2-8 Division III) faced off against the Eagles from John S. Burke Catholic (9-5 overall, 6-3 Division III) in an OCIAA division match Friday afternoon and came out a little worse for the wear.
The Eagles landed in Jeffersonville with a stronger record and a more experienced offense – the Sullivan West team is made up of mostly sophomores with no juniors and five seniors.
And after Eagle Rich Cestaro scored first, less than halfway into the first half, the Eagles made their presence known, shooting over and over at the Bulldogs’ sophomore goalie, Joe Layman.
The Bulldogs responded with their own boot into the net, off of the foot of Billy Nordenhold 10 minutes later.
But after keeping the score tied through the end of the first half, the home team lost its energy.
Layman allowed two more goals in the first three minutes of play, and a final score with 28 minutes of play left.
The final score of 4-1, though lopsided, didn’t adequately reflect the hard work Layman put in throughout the game.
With 18 shots on goal, the Eagles only got the ball past his hands four times, but the Bulldog offense didn’t keep up their side of the bargain.
Burke’s two goalies, Greg Terlecky and Tyler Locatell, had four saves between them on five shots on goal.
The boys have improved greatly over the course of the season, said Sullivan West Coach Joe Ebeling.
“The team has come a long way for them to even compete with this team,” Ebeling said.
Layman was the star of the game, he added.
“He’s outstanding, and he’s only a sophomore,” Ebeling noted.
Jonathan Reynolds and Mike Erlwein put up a good effort as well, the coach said, as did Ed Raum, who assisted Nordenhold’s goal, and Nordenhold himself.
“I always have [Nordenhold] shadow their best players, and he pretty much shut them down,” Ebeling said.
On the Burke side of the coin, Coach Jim Lagarde was cautiously happy with his team.
“We played OK,” he said. “But now we have four games to get us prepared for the section tournament.”
The Sullivan West game, he said, gave the boys a chance to practice in different positions.
Cestaro scored all four Eagle goals on assists from Joe Lagarde.