SHORELINE
Right place, right time.
Shorecrest freshman midfielder Ian Adams scored in the 71st minute to propel the Scots to a 2-1 win over a rival Shorewood to stay atop the Western Conference South Division.
“Shorewood’s obviously our rival and since we lost last time in an upset, it was nice to finally get that winning goal and shut them down,” Adams said.
Adams knocked in his shot off an assist from sophomore forward Glenn Paden, who got the ball off a long shot from senior Devin Shull.
“(Paden) shot far post, which we always teach them,” Shorecrest coach Drew Thompson said. “What happened was that he missed, but Ian happened to be there. That’s why you shoot far post — when you miss, somebody’s there. A little lucky, but we need a little bit of luck. Ian finished it well, but the setup was a little bit lucky.”
The Scots (7-0 Wesco South, 13-1 overall) stayed unbeaten in front of a lively crowd, Friday, May 1 at Shoreline Stadium.
Shorecrest’s attack struck first in the ninth minute on a beautiful cross by junior forward Eli Blauser to midfielder Jeremy Novack, who came on hard down the right wing to boot it into the back of the net from 10 yards out.
Defense has been the Scots strength this year but the offense created numerous scoring opportunities against the T-birds. Shorecrest had 14 shots on goal to nine for Shorewood.
“In practices we’ve been working on finishing and shooting and concentrating around the goal and I think that’s how we got our two goals,” Shorecrest captain Michael Harris said. “We’ve been working on shooting angles, and instead of shooting it from near post, we’ve been putting it across the goal and we did that twice today.”
Shorewood got its only goal off a free kick by defender Peter Odell in the 50th minute. Odell curved his kick around the defensive wall and into the right side of the net from 20 yards out from the left side.
“I got give a lot of credit to Shorewood. They came out here beaten and battered — they’ve got some of their best players sidelined by injuries,” Thompson said. “Certainly not our best game but we’re happy with the result.”
Shorewood started the season 6-0-1 in the nonleague schedule but since has gone 1-3-3 in counting league games.
Injuries have caught up with the T-birds. Starting midfielder Jake Wilkins is back after missing weeks with a cracked bone his leg, but is just getting back into the swing of things.
Midfielder Sam Olson is out with a broken toe and defender Steven McGinley has played the last four games with cracked ribs because Shorewood coach Mark Wisdom doesn’t have enough substitutes.
“Last year I kept the team large because we were looking for injury protection because we don’t have a C team to pull from to the JV that pulls from the C team,” Wisdom said. “We don’t have that benefit this year. So I said last year we’ll have a large roster. Not one injury, not one stinking injury. This year, I keep the roster small. What do I get? Four or five at a time.”
Shorecrest has already clinched the top Wesco South seed to the 3A district playoffs.
“We want to get momentum going into the playoffs,” Thompson said.
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