Lynx soccer wrapped up their season at home with a win over the Anne Arundel Community College Riverhawks on Tuesday, Oct. 19. The final score was 3-2.
Despite playing four games in seven days, the Lynx came out hard and according to Coach Tom O'Brien, "played forward from the start in a good end-to-end-contest."
The Riverhawks scored first with a goal in the 16th minute and although both sides had good chances, the remainder of the half was scoreless.
"Goalkeeper Tim Wolf continually frustrated the attacking side in the first half," noted O'Brien, "by coming off his line on crosses and, at times, out of the box to control the through balls into the defensive third."
The Lynx made a few adjustments at halftime including switching out goalies and "resumed the game at good pace, attacking the other side from the start," explained O'Brien.
Joey Brauer equalized with a goal eight minutes into the second half with an assist from Kyle Hardy. Ten minutes later, the Riverhawks scored the go-ahead goal.
O'Brien affirmed that "the Lynx quickly recovered and attacked with good frequency, leading to another Brauer goal in the 67th minute off an assist by Abram Castanzo."
"For the next 15 minutes, each team pressed, with Michael Panzarotto and Aaron Ostendorf shutting down the attack in the middle, combined with Kyle Hardy, Robby Wagner and Andrew O'Donnell holding down the flanks," O'Brien said. "Mason Hale in the goal kept things even with needed shot-stopping and disrupting crosses and through balls in dangerous areas of the box."
Finally, Abram Castanzo ran onto a long-driven ball by Aaron Ostendorf and scored the go-ahead and eventual game-winning goal in the 82nd minute.
"In the midfield, the consistent play by Justus Denning, Eric Wojtkowiak, Wolf, Kieran McMahon and Castanzo prevented movement through the center of the field and provided good linkage with Alec Wargo and Grant Scibek, who created much-needed opportunities to break down the Riverhawks defensively to allow our goals to be scored," elaborated O'Brien.
"The energy from start to finish by all was evident and persistent for 90 good minutes," O'Brien summarized. "Today's game result was not just about outscoring the other team but also was about not letting things distract us from our mission to win and finish the season strong. In the last 19 days, the team has won four out of seven matches, averaged just about three goals per game and secured a program-first shutout against a good Chesapeake side."
Lynx soccer will hold an ID camp for high school seniors on Saturday, Dec. 11. Visit the front page for more details.
