Avery Soccer Kicks Off Season with Consecutive Road Victories

Last week the Avery boys soccer team picked up a pair of victories to open the 2009 regular season schedule.

On Wednesday, August 19^th the Big Red went on the road to take on Chase High School and came away with a hard fought 2-0 win behind a pair of goals from senior Kyle Griewisch.

The head coach from both teams met and agreed to shorten the game to only 30 minutes per half after lightning forced a delay at the 30-minute mark with the game scoreless.

Avery regrouped at intermission and played inspired soccer in the second stanza. Viking senior Kyle Griewisch kicked the offense into gear and tallied a pair of goals within a seven-minute stretch for what proved to be the only goals of the match.

“We felt really good about how well we played at the Jamboree and felt we’d take that with us to Chase. Unfortunately for the first 30 minutes at Chase we just weren’t doing anything right. Chase was coming at us hard,” Vikings head coach Tom Evaul said following the match. “We regrouped during the weather delay and the guys looked like a totally different team in the second half.”

Avery’s defense was strong and senior keeper Morgan Bounds made multiple extraordinary stops in goal to record his first shut out of the season. “I was proud of how our guys came back and did what they needed to do in the second half to get the win,” the coach added.

Less than 24 hours after the trip to play Chase, Avery again boarded a bus, this time to take on the Knights of North Henderson High School. The Vikings began the North match crisper than the previous day. In the first seven minutes of the opening half, the Big Red had put a pair of shots off the foot of Kyle Griewisch into the back of the net for a 2-0 advantage.

Inclement weather again reared its ugly head at North Henderson, forcing Avery to halt play temporarily for a second consecutive match. Following the intermission the Knights rallied and cut into the Avery lead, netting a goal to cut the North deficit to 2-1. “I told the guys during the delay that North will want to come out and do to us the same thing that we did to Chase, and that we needed to regroup and be ready for their intensity,” Coach Evaul said.

Avery suffered a potentially major setback during first half action as senior stalwart Daniel Huff suffered a leg injury and left for the remainder of the game. “Losing Daniel was a big blow for us,” Coach Evaul explained. “Daniel is the backbone of our defense and we had to do some scrambling and changing of positions which threw our chemistry off.”

The Vikings managed to pick up an insurance goal as Isauro Estrada took a pass from Griewisch and scored his first goal of the season for a 3-1 Viking lead. North answered quickly with a second goal to get back within one at 3-2, but Morgan Bounds played an exceptional game in goal, stopping numerous North shot attempts and preserving the win.

“Considering that we were playing three starters down, our guys played scappy and were aggressive. Everybody was going at it hard and to the best of their ability, and we were fortunate to be able to hold them off,” Coach Evaul said. “Our two guys up front were able to beat the defense with their speed and the team has done a good job in placing the ball to them so they can outrun the defense.

Avery's lone game this week is a match at West Henderson on Tuesday, Aug. 25th.