The Manual boys’ soccer team defeated Male 2-0 on Monday night in the first round of the regional soccer tournament. This win marked Manual’s second victory over Male this season.
After a scoreless first half, Riley Hook (11, #52) broke the tie with a goal in the 43rd minute.
“In the moment the ball just fell to me, and I put it on goal and it went in,” Hook said. “I was just kind of there.”
The Crimsons seized control of the game and dominated for much of the second half after Hook’s goal.
“We played a lot more defensively and once we got the goal we really sat back, which allowed us to counter attack and get the second goal,” Hook said.
Manual also adjusted to Male in the second half by utilizing their speed off the bench.
“In the second half we brought some guys on who hadn’t played in the first half very much,” Lucas Gibson (11, #2) said. “We got more speed, less size on the ball, and it just seemed to break down [Male] a little better.”
Henry Jelsma (10, #54) played big minutes off the bench in the second half. Jelsma came up big in crunch time and had multiple quality shots on goal before scoring in the 63rd minute to seal the game for Manual.
“I was coming on the right. Dylan [Barth] passed the ball to Colin [Barker], and I made a cut and run and made sure I wasn’t offsides,” Jelsma said. “Colin scooped the ball to me, and I put it back into the goal.”
Manual coasted after the Jelsma goal to the 2-0 win. The shutout was the eighth in a row for the Crimsons.
“That’s our eighth straight shutout, and we just have to keep playing the way that we are playing,” Gibson said. “If we don’t get scored on we can’t lose, and the momentum after this game, the moral is so high on the team, we just got to keep going.”
The win keeps Manual’s dream for a state title alive, and ends Male’s season this year.
“It’s a perfect way to end the season,” Gibson said. “I know that we have a long way to go to get to state but if the season were to end today, you wouldn’t want anything better.”
Manual will face either KCD or Waggner in the second round of the regional tournament on Thursday, Oct. 23.
