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Sports

Ferndale Soccer Continues to Struggle with 6-1 Loss to Seaholm

The Eagles can't keep up with the Maples' offense on Tuesday night at home.

There weren’t a lot of positives for the varsity boys soccer team Tuesday night.

It was badly outplayed in a 6-1 loss at home to Birmingham Seaholm. Four different players scored goals for the Maples and they could have easily ended up with eight or nine had a couple of shots bounced their way. They finished the game with nearly two dozens shots on goal.

The Eagles' defense struggled to get Seaholm out of its zone and couldn’t handle the tempo their opponent set.

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“We don’t handle pace at all,” Ferndale head coach Steven Motter said. “We are better suited to play against a slower tempo team and unfortunately the OAA isn’t full of those type of teams.”

Matteo Iavicoli started off things with a goal for Seaholm less than eight minutes into the game. His goal at the 32:12 mark set the tone for the rest of the game.

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The Maples had a 3-1 lead by halftime and added three unanswered goals in the second half. Andrew Pryka scored twice and Tommy Bowman scored to put the game out of reach for Ferndale.

Maples head coach Ian Whitelaw liked the way his team used the whole field on offense and consistently kept up the pressure. Seaholm maintained possession in Ferndale’s zone for most of the game and even with a big lead didn’t stop pushing forward.

“It’s all off the ball running,” Whitelaw said. “It’s every guy in the right spot at the right time. That’s how you keep possession, if you keep possession you don’t get scored on and it’s a simple game that way. We are a very possession-orientated team and that’s important.”

It was the third time in four games that they scored at least six goals. Whitelaw said the depth key to his team’s recent success has been their depth offensively.

“We have a lot of talent offensively,” Whitelaw said. “We knew that coming into the season, that we have seven or eight guys that can put it in the net any given day, multiple times. It’s different guys in different games and that’s important.”

The Eagles lone goal came in the first half off a shot from senior Devin Chartier. His shot was actually deflected in the net by Seaholm defender Dalton Geraldo. Geraldo jumped to try and knock the ball out of the air, but he hit it right over his goalie’s hands instead.

Ferndale on the other hand is searching for answers. It fell to 2-8 on the season and 1-8 within the OAA Blue. Motter said he’s been getting some younger guys playing time and trying to find combinations that work for districts in October.

“We are still young, now that the league is out of question we are working towards districts and trying to find what’s going to work there,” Motter said. “One of our goals was to get top three in the division, but now we move on to the next goal.”

One thing that the Eagles are going to have to work on is eliminating their mistakes.

“My biggest concern is that the same mistakes are being made over and over again,” Motter said. “We correct them in practice, we have really great practice, it’s just not coming out on the field in games. That’s the frustrating part as a coach when you have talent.”

They will try to rebound when they visit Lamphere on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.

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