By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
GREEN BAY—The Green Bay Preble boy’s soccer team knocked home two pk’s in the first half in route to a 3-0 FRCC victory over the Notre Dame Academy Tritons in a game played October 8 at Ted Fritsch Field.
“It’s good to have some of our top players back from injury,” said Chris Becker, Preble head coach. “I think it showed tonight having a healthy unit and getting a victory against a very good Notre Dame team.”
The Tritons (12-5-1, 5-1-1 FRCC) had the ball on their half for the better part of the first 15 minutes but were unable to register a shot on goal despite three early fouls on the Hornets. That changed in the 19th minute after Christian Martinez let a scissors kick go from 23 yards out that didn’t get through traffic.
The Hornets then slowly changed the direction of the field.
“I feel like we were feeling them out early,” added Becker. “Notre Dame was playing a 4-4-2 and we made some quick adjustments to find the holes on the offensive end.”
The final 20 minutes of the first half belonged to the Hornets.
In the 26th minute, Preble’s Omar Guzman got loose in front of the goal and was fouled by Notre Dame’s Sam Limoni inside the restricted area.
The Hornets (9-4-3, 6-1 FRCC) were awarded a penalty kick and Connor Freeborg knocked home the one-on-one look to give the visitors an early 1-0 lead.
“Honestly, we haven’t practiced a lot of pk’s this year,” Becker said. “Connor takes a lot of those shots when we get them, and he put one through to open up the scoring.”
Just five minutes later, the Tritons once again made a costly mistake fouling the Hornets close to the goal with the lead official once again giving the signal for a penalty kick. This time Oscar Hernandez put home the free kick and all of a sudden gave Preble a 2-0 lead in which they carried into halftime.
In the second half, Notre Dame’s Adam Brada ripped a shot from 35 yards just minutes in, but unfortunately it hit the left goalpost signifying the type of night it was going to be for the Tritons.
Preble slammed the door shut in the 84th minute when Brian Martinez took a cross on the left sidelines and sent in a beautiful curving shot that found the right half of the open net to give the Hornets a three-goal lead.
“I felt like we moved the ball well and we’re coming into our own in this stretch run,” added Becker. “The guys are ready to finish the conference strong and head into the playoffs with some momentum.”
Box Score:
Green Bay Preble: 2, 1—3
Notre Dame: 0,0—0