DRYDEN –– The Dryden-Lansing boys soccer rivalry is always taken up a notch when both teams are successful and that was the case Tuesday night at Dryden High School. Despite the Bobcats pulling out a 5-1 victory, the two teams were sick of each other after 80 minutes of fast and physical play.
Dryden captain Paul Busby and a few of the Lansing backs exchanged some words after the Bobcats stalled to run the clock late in the game. Lansing players chirped back as they ran off the field and the Dryden players were forced to take it after falling to 3-3 on the season.
“We’ve had this rivalry for many years, even before they came into our division,” Dryden head coach Laszlo Engel said. “We battle every game, there is no easy games. It doesn’t matter who won them, they were just battles. It’s never going to change, I don’t think.”
Despite the lopsided score, it was an evenly-matched game most of the way. Lansing outshot Dryden 19-9, but the Lions took nine corner kicks to the Bobcats’ five. Engel wasn’t too disappointed with the outcome because of how his guys played.
“We were dangerous, we were in there,” Engel said. “We gave up a couple softer goals, but I think we learned from it and we played much better as the game went on. We were dangerous quite often.”
Lansing played its game early and often, keeping the ball on the ground and playing with pace. The Bobcats took a 2-0 lead into halftime, but Dryden had its moments. Luke Eshelman missed just high of the goal six minutes in, Busby had a shot punched over the top of the frame with 11:54 left before halftime and goalkeeper Braden Allen made big save after big save to keep it within reach.
Eshelman scored off a through ball from Busby 7:35 into the second half to make it a one-goal game. Lansing then scored on a penalty kick with 26:03 to go and added two more insurance goals before the end of the game.
Dryden was down big but still answering its coach’s calls to be dangerous. Engel is happy he has a group of guys that will battle until the final horn, no matter the result.
“This team, they never quit,” Engel said. “They just keep playing until the final whistle. Whether it’s overtime of anything, they don’t stop playing. Every game this year that’s what they’ve done. Even when they’re up they still come down the field hard, so I know they’ll come back.”
Engel’s postgame speech was very positive and the players also felt they got better throughout the night. They competed with a perennial Class B power and worked to improve themselves.
“I think we can build on this,” Engel said. “We were playing the ball a little too slow at the beginning of the game and we were playing it faster as the game went on and that’s something we’ve been working on. The second piece is we’ve got other kids that can shoot. They need to take their shots and I think that’ll make a difference.”
Allen was under fire a fair bit Tuesday night but made lots of highlight-reel saves. He dove to his left and right to stop shots from the aggressive Lansing forwards.
“I turned and looked at the bench and said, ‘We’ve got Braden, we’re going to be good,’” Engel said. “He’s back in form from last year. He had an injury over the winter and he’s recovering from it. He just got cleared in August and he’s coming back and I think he’s back.”
Dryden will look to get back on the winning track at 10 a.m. Saturday at Spencer-Van Etten/Candor.
