IR Soccer Beats SC
for Near-Perfect Month
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Match of the Week Story ...
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By ERIC MAGILL
Publisher, Sussex County Online
Photos (from top): IR's Sam Svenson (1) battles Sussex Central's Ruben Dominguez, and SC's Brett Cordrey and IR's Martin Chavez race to the ball.
 FRANKFORD -- With 10 seniors returning, the Indian River High School boys' soccer team didn't just set its sights on winning the Henlopen Conference Southern Division and qualifying for the state tournament this year.
The Indians wanted to dominate, dominate to the point that they didn't want to allow a conference opponent to score a goal against them this season.
With their 3-1 victory over rival Sussex Central on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2003, the Indians may have missed out on the 12 conference shutouts, but they still completed a perfect month of September in the conference.
Now 5-0 in the conference, the Indians have outscored their Henlopen foes 27-1. The only other goal they surrendered this year was to powerhouse Salesianum in a 1-0 loss on Sept. 11.
Since that loss, the Indians have beaten Woodbridge 9-0, Seaford 5-0, Sussex Tech 3-0, and now Central, 3-1.
"We didn't want to let in any goals in the conference," said senior co-captain Brandt Mais. "We just lost that tonight and I'm kind of disappointed in that, but we definitely we want to win our conference, take a long run maybe at states and the state championship."
 The Indians controlled the match against Central throughout, but didn't score until the 32:05 mark, when senior midfielder Jonathan Forte put them ahead 1-0 on an assist from senior striker Sam Svenson. Mais then followed with a score on a penalty kick at the 34:43 mark to make it 2-0.
The Indians looked ready to blow the game wide open in the second half when Jeremy Showell converted a rebound of a shot by Svenson for a 3-0 lead just one minute into the second half.
But Central stiffened after that and scored its lone goal at 71:59 when Eddie Romero punched a shot in.
By night's end, the Indians had outshot Central 31-8 and built a 7-0 advantage in corner kicks, the kind of dominance that has been typical of their first month of the season.
"This is the year we've been working towards, but it's just one season, so it's not the end of the world," said IR head coach Howard Gerken. "These kids have played a lot together and they know the game of soccer and they've been doing a nice job."
The loss dropped Central to 6-2 overall and 5-2 in the conference.
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TEAM
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1
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2
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TOT.
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SUSSEX CENTRAL
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0
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1
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1
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INDIAN RIVER
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2
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1
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3
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Second Half:
32:05 -- INDIAN RIVER (1-0 Indian River)
Jonathan Forte goal
Sam Svenson assist
34:43 -- INDIAN RIVER (2-0 Indian River)
Brandt Mais goal
41:41 -- INDIAN RIVER (3-0 Indian River)
Jeremy Showell
Sam Svenson assist
71:59 -- SUSSEX CENTRAL (3-1 Indian River)
Eddie Romero goal
STATISTICS
Shots -- Indian River 31, Sussex Central 8.
Saves -- Indian River 7 (Pat Devine), Sussex Central 13 (Jason Collins).
Corner Kicks -- Indian River 7, Sussex Central 0.
Indian River head coach Howard Gerken on the Indians' goals this year:
"Certainly the first priority is to win the game and the second is to shut them out. The boys have been working hard at trying not to give up goals and they were disappointed (to allow Central a goal). The keeper came up a couple of times, Pat Devine, with some great saves. That one (goal), there was nothing he could do about it. Fortunaely we had a 3-0 lead at the time. Fortunately we were able to hold them off and take our main objective, which was to win and go home with it."
Gerken on the Indians' upcoming stretch against Delmar, Milford and Cape Henlopen:
"That's the meat of the order there. We'll have to see. We'll try to take them one game at a time and we'll see what happens."
Indian River co-captain Brandt Mais on this year's Indians:
"We have a lot of seniors ane we've veen playing together forever. We have, in this group, about 5 or 6 of us who are four-year varsity starters, so this isn't really a surprise."
Indian River midfielder Jonathan Forte on beating rival Sussex Central:
"I wasn't even worried about losing. I was worried about getting a goal scored on us."
Forte on his goal, the Indians' first of the match:
"I knew it was going to be a weird hit as soon as the ball came to me. I knew the ground was real slippery. There was just a little dew in the air and I knew the ball was going to be a little slippery and I wasn't sure how to hit it. I just hit it as hard as I could. I knew the goalie was going to fumble it because I was going right at him. I just hit it with all the power in my right leg."
The win over Sussex Central began a critical stretch for the Indians. They visit Delmar, which knocked them out of last year's state tournament, on Thursday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m. They then visit Milford on Tuesday, Oct. 7 before hosting Cape Henlopen on Thursday, Oct. 9, and Dover on Tuesday, Oct. 14.
IR midfielder Jonathan Forte has scored four goals in the last three games. Senior co-captain and midfielder Sam Svenson leads the team with six goals.
Indian River has beaten its district rival four consecutive times going back to the 2001 season. The Indians beat Central 4-2 and 2-1 that year, 3-2 in 2002, and now 3-1 this year. Central's last victories came in 2000, when it beat IR twice by scores of 2-1 and 1-0.
The defeat was Central's second in the conference. The Golden Knights lost to Cape Henlopen 3-0 earlier in the year.
The loss snapped a three-match win streak for Central.
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