Trending
POLAND -- Poland had a netfront scare in the final minute of the game, but its defense was as strong as it was the entire contest, fending off a last-second push from Hubbard to beat the Eagles 2-1.
"We knew from the beginning of the year we were going to get wins based on our backline because that's where most of our experience was retained," Bulldogs coach Brian Garcar said. "We put a lot on those guys, a lot on our center backs and a lot on our outside backs to do a lot of good things, and they were pretty rock solid all day.
"Our midfield did a good job of trying to slow things down through the middle. Hubbard possessed a pretty good amount of the game, but I thought our midfield helped us also at least put enough pressure on to make them take some shots that they didn't want to take."
That final minute encompassed the entire game very well.
Hubbard maintained possession, drove down the field, was stifled by Poland, rinse and repeat.
The Eagles dominated possession in the first half, but walked away scoreless.
Poland on the other hand, while not getting as many scoring opportunities, capitalized.
The Bulldogs drew first blood near the end of the first half, with Andreas Tsikouris putting one past the Eagles. What would be the decisive goal came midway through the second half, with Colin McBride getting on the board.
Hubbard's Caleb Mackay put the Eagles on the board less than a minute later, but they couldn't get another ball to connect with the back of the net.
Unfortunately for the Eagles (4-3-2), that's been the story this season. Possession, but not enough to show for it.
"We've been saying this since the beginning, we need our strikers with confidence," Hubbard coach Cory Reinard said. "Once we can get them some confidence, I can just feel the floodgates opening once we get confidence and we find the gaps and stuff.
"Credit to Poland. After getting the goals they went back to a back-four, we obviously made our tactical change to press more up, continued to press into their box and their goalkeeper made some great saves."
This is a big confidence win for Poland, a young team who has had to battle this season. A murderers row of a schedule, injuries, and the effects of losing 10 seniors from last year's squad have all taken a toll in respective ways, but the Bulldogs (6-2-3) are starting to find themselves.
This win is a good start.
"It's taken a long time," Garcar said. "It's been a long season for us, a lot of growing and a lot of learning because of a lot of new faces but again, I give a lot of credit to our captains for trying to keep our guys organized. We've got a bunch of captains back there just trying to keep things locked down as much as we can. Hubbard is a really, really good team so you're not going to stop them. But we're trying to slow them down and make their lives as difficult as possible and we were on the right end of the result today."
The Bulldogs continue on with another tough Northeast-8 game at South Range on Thursday. Hubbard hosts Lakeview on Thursday, then travels to Strongsville on Saturday.
byauger@tribtoday.com