St. Edward blanks Westminster Christian
Never does a postseason disappoint you in the unsung hero department.
Isaac Nordan was scoreless since he joined the St. Edward soccer team as a freshman, but after the Green Wave's 2-0 win over No. 3 seed Westminster Christian in a Class 1A regional semifinal Wednesday hosted by the Warriors, that all changed for the sophomore defender.
Nordan managed to get his head on a corner kick from Alex Semler in the 21st minute which became the de facto game-winner that set the tone and helped No. 2 St. Edward (11-8) into the regional final against top-seeded Harvest Christian Friday at 4 p.m. Harvest beat the Green Wave 2-1 on August 26.
"I'm glad I scored in a regional rather than a regular game, it's a perfect time to score," Nordan said. "All the balls were being stopped by the water, everything was going dead. I just went in there, jumped and hit it in."
Joe French added his 62nd career goal for insurance in the 46th minute off a through ball from AJ Franklin, but even St. Edward head coach Tim Brieger was taken off guard by Nordan's clutch knock in the first half.
"Usually we have to shove Isaac up. (Assistant coach Caitlin Johnson) is always yelling at him to go up and get into the big old frame in the box and it was a beautiful little header," Brieger said. "I told the boys before the game this wasn't going to be a soccer game, this was going to be a war of attrition. This is going to be who gets that ball through and who doesn't make the first mistake and it was."
Capitalizing on corners and free kicks were extremely important as there wasn't much traction of sorts with footing being a major issue and tire tracks on one side of the field were used as a contour for the end line. Even Westminster's Joe Tyrrell shouted before the match that it was perfect conditions for a game of rugby.
"We were trying early to thread balls into space and you saw them hitting the water going splat," said Brieger, who wanted to limit Westminster's corners. "I told the guys if you give them 30 corner kicks they're going to put one in. I said no more corner kicks, please."
Westminster (10-9-1) did win the edge in corners 9-6 but it was St. Edward who capitalized. The Wave edged the Warriors in shots 10-9 and even when the Warriors had their chances in the Wave zone, they couldn't put their chances through, part of which was due to the play of Wave defender Emilio Guia.
"There was a couple (corners) there we got on the end of and they were free and we just didn't put them away, that was some of it." Warriors coach Erik Schwartz said.