XENIA — The host Buccaneers kept the offensive pressure on throughout most of Friday night’s boys varsity soccer match with Greene County rival Greeneview, and it paid off with just over eight minutes left in the contest5 for a 1-0 Xenia win.
About a minute after a header from freshman Symon Dykman trickled slowly past the Rams goal and just wide to the right, junior forward Jake Cloud drove deep into the right before getting off a nice crossing pass to his left to Bucs teammate junior forward Brycen Heim, who quickly got off a solid blast into the left half of the Greeneview goal.
“It looked like we knocked the ball around pretty well, and I think we created a lot of good opportunities, so it was good to finally finish one there,” said Xenia coach John Bongers. “I think we had 10 or so good shots, it just took us a while to get one past their keeper back there. He’s real solid. He’s well positioned, and I thought he did a great job for them.”
Bongers was referring to Greeneview junior goalkeeper Hunter Anderson, who made several big saves on the night. Perhaps the biggest save of the night came barely seven minutes into the second half, when a corner kick shot was centered about five feet in front of Anderson, who quickly grabbed the scoring try over his head from very close range, to keep things even.
Xenia had another big opportunity to score with 16:41 left to play, when Anderson had actually fallen down twice before a Greeneview defender was able to clear the ball away.
It was a loss for his Rams, but veteran coach Bob Eakins remained optimistic about his young team.
“They had possession a lot more than we did, so hats off to them. They probably had three or four really good opportunities, but our keeper played an outstanding match — again,” Eakins said. “We created some scoring chances, but we just didn’t score.
“We’re young. I’ve got three seniors, three juniors and the rest are freshmen and sophomores. … and I only had 14 kids here tonight. And we just played a full game last night, so to get beat 1-0, that’s okay. We play hard, and I love these kids for that. … We do have to fix a few things, but we’re young. We’ll be alright.”
With earlier shutout wins over Lynchburg-Clay and West Carrollton, Xenia (3-0) has yet to be scored upon this season. The Buccaneers are back on the Doug Adams Stadium pitch for a 7 p.m. contest on Tuesday, Aug. 27 next.
Greeneview (0-2) is also back in action at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 27 at Springfield Shawnee.
