WORTHINGTON -- The Worthington boys' soccer team defeated the Glencoe-Silver Lake Panthers 4-2 Monday in Worthington.
"The game plan going in was just to work the ball and play our game," Trojans coach Smitty Ektnitphong said. "In the beginning we did pretty well. We scattered the ball around and made the other team chase the ball."
The Trojans came out quick in the first half with two shots off the pipe on back-to-back possessions. Just three minutes later, Jesus Ordaz broke through the Panther's defense and got a shot off, but goalie Parker Kerslake was able to make the save.
Worthington picked up their first goal of the night just eight minutes into the half off a shot from Angel Sanchez from Ordaz 20 feet in front of the net.
The second goal of the night also went to the Trojans. With just over 24 minutes left, Josh Kleve put the ball past Kerslake off of a deflection in front of the net.
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The lone opportunity for the Panthers came with four minutes remaining in the half. G-LS pushed into Trojan territory and put a shot just over the crossbar for their only shot of the half.
The second half started off much the same as the first for the Trojans. Victor Meza scored the third goal of the night for Worthington when he dribbled by five Panther defenders, splitting the final pairbefore blasting the ball past Kerslake. The goal came just over eight minutes into the half.
The Panthers answered back three minutes later with their own goal from Ismael Calderon.
The Trojans allowed G-SL to penetrate their defense and push the ball deep into their defensive zone. The pressure applied by the Panthers caused Worthington to put the ball out of bounds which led to a corner kick.
The ball bounced around in front of the net before Calderon managed to put it past Trojans goalie Kody Honius. The goal caused the momentum of the game to shift in the favor of G-SL and would lead to another goal for the Panthers.
"Everytime when you have a 3-0 cushion, you start to leave your guard down," Ektnitphong said. "We still played the same way we played in the first half.
"But I told them that when a team is down 2-0 going into the second half, they are going to come out and come out hard and furious. They surprised us with how fast they came out."
With just over 20 minutes left, Worthington commited a foul in front of the net giving the Panthers a penalty kick. G-SL would take advantage of their opportunity and cut the Trojans lead to just one on the goal by Joe Fehrenbach.
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"I tried to stay more focused when they started attacking harder," Honius said. "I tried to make sure the guys were getting back to cover when that happened."
Worthington picked up its game after allowing the second goal and regained their two-goal lead with 6:19 remaining in the game. The goal was scored by Roque Soto on a pass from Dario Bartelmess.
"I told the team to stay strong because they were almost catching up," Meza said. "I also told them not to lose their heads and keep going. I tried to support the defense more and then try to help out as much as I could on the attack to get one more goal to secure the win."
The Panthers threatened again with just under a minute left in the game off a header in front of the net. But Honius was able to corral the ball and play it back up the field.
"We still have a few things to clean up," Ektnitphong said. "Our defense played well. Our forwards were not quite up to what I needed to see.
"It seemed like every time we got the ball to the 18-foot line, we struggled with the ball. Hopefully we will get back to playing the way we can."
The Trojans play Wednesday against St. Peter at 6:15 p.m. in Worthington.
Daily Globe Reporter Jordan Willi
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