PREP SOCCER: Jersey fends off McGivney; Eagles, Cavies grab wins

Published 11:04 am, Friday, September 8, 2017

Jersey senior forward John Bray, right, scored a goal and helped lead the panthers to a 5-3 victory over Father Gvney High School Thursday night. He is shown in summer league action.

Jersey senior forward John Bray, right, scored a goal and helped lead the panthers to a 5-3 victory over Father Gvney High School Thursday night. He is shown in summer league action.

Photo: Billy Hurst File Photo | For The Telegraph

PREP SOCCER: Jersey fends off McGivney; Eagles, Cavies grab wins

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The Jersey Panthers boys soccer team got back on the winning track Thursday night, but they had to hold off a second-half rally by Father McGivney High School to do so.

Jersey (5-1) held a 3-0 halftime lead, but the Griffins scored a pair of goals in the second half to get within 4-3 before Jersey got an insurance goal to ice the Panthers’ second victory over McGivney this season. Jersey downed the Griffins 2-1 Aug. 31 in the championship game of the Carlinville Tournament.

“We played well at times, flat at other times, ” Jersey coach Scott Burney said. “It’s a process and our kids are still learning.”

Jersey got goals from five different players, including Wyatt Freand, Dax Kanallakan, Gavin McGuire, John Bray and David Rogers. It was Rogers’ goal with 10 minutes remaining in the game that provided the two-goal cushion for the Panthers.

Kanallakan played really well tonight and Bray was a beast,” said Burney.

“Tonight we were OK at times, still not doing enough to keep a good flow of the game,” CM coach Derek Jarman said. “We haven’t played a full 80 minutes all year. We keep preaching to ignore the scoreboard, if we’re winning or losing, and just focus on our adjustments and improve. The goal is to get better today than we were yesterday.”

In third minute, Mikey Stevenson scored from a Kameron Denney assist. In the 10th minute, Jayden Serafini tucked in a shot from A Denney assists.

In the 27th minute, Hardimon scored from Stevenson and in 58th minute, he scored on a blast from 30 yards out from an assist from Parker Calvin. Freshman Jordan Hendricks finished the scoring in the 75th minute, assisted by Calvin.

“We were able to fight through some bad habits and the defense playing eight and nine guys behind the ball at times,” Jarman said. “Their keeper played very well. We were able to move guys around and gain experience that hopefully pays off down the road.

We’ve got great kids that give us everything they’ve got, but (assistant coach) Eric (Zyung) and I keep preaching to get the first touch, get in good positions to win a 50/50 ball, and just make life easier by doing the simple things.

“Tonight, we did that at times. Hopefully. it carries over to the next game. Lots of teachable moments, we just hope they are learning.”

Carlinville 8, Litchfield 2 - Trey Gall scored three goals and two each from Adin Matt Fleischer and Matt Schmidt to lead the Cavaliers past Litchfield in a South Central Conference game.

Gall scored in the third minute unassisted, followed by a Schmidt goal in the fifth minute.

After Litchfield scored to cut the lead in half, the Cavies scored six unanswered goals to go up 8-1 at halftime. The barrage was started by TJ Gosnell, followed by goals from Gall, Adin Fleischer, Gall again, Schmidt and Fleischer.