An Undefeated Soccer Season!

November 2009

Ann Arbor - The Emerson Eagles finished the regular season undefeated, dispatching Washtenaw Christian Academy on Thursday afternoon. 

Playing without the services of fullback Alex Vidovic and forward Darien Skifstad, and in what this season have come to be the standard miserable weather conditions for games on the home pitch - cold, wind, rain - the Eagles used the same defensive position adjustments as in the previous game with Steiner School, alternately bringing Rahul Gupta and Mark Wurster from midfield to fullback.  The result was an almost complete lock-down on WCA's offense.  In contrast to his very active game against Steiner, Maceo Gaines never had occasion to touch the ball during his stint in goal.  In fact, during that first half, WCA never got the ball inside Emerson's 18-yard box. 

The Eagles, meanwhile, got a goal from Daniel Olson, who skipped a low shot off the wet grass to the right of the WCA keeper from the top of the box in the 7th minute.  Barely three minutes later Alec Greene raced the keeper to the ball near the PK spot, and beat him with a sliding shot, giving Emerson a 2-0 lead which they took into the intermission.

Brendan Spencer took over in the net for the Eagles in the second half, and did get to make one routine save.  Other than that, it was more dominance by the home team.  Peter Michaelides ran through the middle of the WCA defense, then took his time picking a target in the back right corner of the net, raising the count to 3-0 early in the period.  With eight minutes remaining, Mitchell Murray finished things off with his 3rd goal of the season.