After dropping its first meeting with DeRuyter in September, the McGraw boys soccer team fought its way to a 1-0 victory Thursday at Bennett St. Field to tie up the season series.
The Eagles’ offense was vicious from the first whistle, pelting Rockets keeper Dylan Foster with 19 shots. Despite the shot volume, Cody Nellenback put the Rockets on his back to keep the defense holding strong.
“Cody’s huge,” DeRuyter head coach Matt Skeele said. “I told him at halftime he saved about five goals himself, and his teammates know that. We probably rely on him a little too much, so we need to clean up our play around him so that we don’t give up breakaways and then rely on Cody to save us.”
After Nellenback briefly left the pitch with an apparent injury, McGraw capitalized. Sophomore Logan Moffitt launched a ball from the left side of the box to finally beat Foster with 16:01 left in the second half to give the Eagles their lead.
Once the Eagles took the lead, DeRuyter started playing desperate. The pace of play quickened noticeably as the Rockets launched a barrage of their own on McGraw’s net. Zachary Kahle, unfazed, withstood all 14 shots sent his way to keep the Eagles’ cage clean.
“We were off tonight,” Skeele said. “We couldn’t connect on passes on offense, which we did a good job of in the first game. Both of these games were close and we knew that winning on the road was going to be tough.”
“We changed our formation from last time,” McGraw head coach Jamey Crumb said. “We played pretty well against them over at their place, but that was probably our first down game in terms of effort. Today, they brought it the whole time and we got ourselves ten corner kicks and 19 shots. It would have been nice to put a few more away, but I think moving people around really helped our energy levels.”
McGraw’s win came on senior night, making the evening all the more special for lone senior, Zander Weeks. Weeks being the only player celebrated highlighted the youth of this Eagles squad and how much potential they have going forward.
“Our young guys put the time in,” Crumb said. “A lot of them play year round, so I’m looking forward to them getting stronger and faster. Our youth shows up a lot at this level, but we’re getting them where they need to be.
McGraw looks to stay hot at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday when rival Cincinnatus comes to town. DeRuyter now turns its focus towards hosting Madison at 5 p.m. Monday.
“We’re going to regroup,” Skeele said. “We’ve got some guys banged up right now and we have to get them healthy so we can rotate guys into some different spots next week.”
