The Manual boys’ soccer team blew out St. Francis 8-0 on Tuesday night. The Crimson offense was tenacious and never stopped forcing the ball down the field.  At one point midfielders Ryan Tarr (11, #70)  and Henry Jelsma (11, #54) both scored two goals; midfielder Riley Hook (12, #8) scored one goal.  The Crimson offense made great passes and never tried to force a shot on goal; the offense always found the open man and never stopped cutting across the field to the open spaces.  In the first half, the Crimsons put up seven goals, and by the end of the half Manual had the chance to play their younger players more.

“Overall the offense played well tonight, we had a lot of goals from a lot of different players which is always a good sign,” Head Coach Bob Ramsey said. “The best thing about tonight was that everyone got to play, we have 35 guys on the team and everyone had a chance to play tonight. That was the best thing about our game tonight.”

The St. Francis defense was unable to stop the Crimson onslaught. Crimson strikers exploited the weaknesses of the St. Francis defense, which was the lack of intensity.  The St. Francis defense never cut to the ball or played good man to man defense.  In one play Dylan Barth (#9, 11) carried the ball through the entire defense to eventually go one on one with goalie.  Hook also made a large contribution to the team with one goal and two assists.

“We played pretty good, we fell off towards the end but that was we tried to get everyone on the field,” Hook said, “Our team had some great finishing tonight, but for the rest of the season we need to work on passing we look to Dylan [Barth] to help out the offense and chase the ball down more than we should.”

After Tuesday’s win there is no question that though the Crimson offense is lethal, the defense may be lacking. The Crimson defense in tonight’s game was not tested very often, however on the few times when St. Francis would move the ball to the offensive side of the field they would successfully press Manual defenders. The defense has the players for the job, but they need better communication.

“The defense didn’t play very good tonight; we are saving our energy for bigger games like St. X, Male and Trinity,” defender Tarr said, “We’re looking to organize the defense better and get a better chemistry on the defensive end, as we move forward as a team we’ll get better and better.”

The next game for the boys’ soccer team is at Central next Tuesday.  Kickoff is at 5 p.m.