|
|
Senior
forward Jaden Horner clears the ball out of the Franklin Monroe
end Saturday during the
Jets district title game with Summit Country
Day. The Silver Knights won the title match, beating
the Jets 4-0. CNO
Photo by George Starks
|
|
Third time not a
charm for Jets
By George Starks
CLAYTON- Going into their district championship game Saturday against
Summit Country Day, (SCD) the Franklin Monroe Jets had shut out all
their opponents in their sectional.
The Silver Knights turned the tables on Franklin Monroe, shutting the
Jets offense down and posting a 4-0 victory to move on the regional
semi-finals.
“They (SCD) are a very tough, solid team,” said Jets coach Danny
Diceanu. “Every one of those guys play club ball and it shows. In their
touch and their movement. They are well coached… just a good, solid
team.”
It was 80 minutes of aggravation for the Jets on offense. No matter
what FM threw at the Silver Knights, SCD had an answer on defense,
holding the Jets to just two shots on goal for the match.
“We looked a little bit out of sync today but how much of that was us
and how much was it them,” Diceanu asked. “I think we were a little bit
in awe and we had an off day today. The speed of the game was much
faster than we normally play. It’s tough to win when you get just two
shots at scoring.”
For 40 minutes, Franklin Monroe played SCD even, ending the half with
no one scoring.
It didn’t take the Silver Knights long to get on the board to start the
second half, taking just 19 seconds.
“Once they broke through, it started to steamroll,” said Diceanu. “That
first goal gave them some confidence and they took off. When they
scored the first goal, we still had nearly 40 minutes to play and we
weren‘t out of it. When the second goal came, I knew it was going to be
tough and when they scored the third goal with 19:22 remaining, that
pretty much sealed the deal for them.”
It was the third time in school history the Jets had made it to the
district level, only to leave as runners-up.
“It’s great getting here,” Diceanu said. “It’s a lot of fun playing at
this level against this caliber of team. I think we played well today.
We are such a young team and I hope these kids will all be back next
year. We have just two seniors on this team so if everyone comes back
next year, who knows?”
While the Jets took only two shots on goal, the Silver Knights kept
junior goalie Grant Skelton hopping.
“I give a lot of credit to Grant.” said Diceanu. “They unloaded on him
today and even though four balls got by him, it wasn’t all on him. We
win as a team, we lose as a team and we don’t play teams like this very
often. I think if we played against this kind of competition during the
season, we would be better prepared and could handle this type of pace.”
Diceanu finished by saying, “there’s no shame in losing to a team like
this. I was just happy we had a chance to play them.”
|
|
Junior
goalie Grant Skelton makes a save against SCD in the first half. CNO
Photo by George Starks
|
|
|
|
