By Bill Bray
TOLEDO – The Fremont Ross Little Giants (2-3, 0-1) traveled to Toledo to take on the Knights of St Francis (3-3-1, 1-0) and fell 6-1 in their first TRAC match up.
It was a tale of two halves for the Giants. The majority of the first half the Knights held the Giants on their defensive end of the field. Because of this, the Knights hit for four goals, the first on a penalty kick at the 32:45. 14 minutes late at the 18:58 the Knights found the Ross goal again when St Francis’ Grant Blakeslee, on a bit of a break away found the net as the Knights increased their lead to 2-0. At the 9:31 the Knights’ Jacob Hoffman was present after Logan Baacke blocked the shot. The ball rolled free and with Baacke on the ground Hoffman put the rebound into the net for a 3-0 St Francis lead.
The Knights final first-half goal came at the 7:56 when Caleb Trent went high and left with the ball to get past Baacke. The half ended with the Knights up 4-0.
The second half was a difference story as Fremont stepped up their game and played the Knights nearly even for the 40-minute session. The Knights scored only two goals and Ross’ Carter Rodriguez put The Giants on the board at the 18:32. The Knights did not score again during the final 19 minutes of the contest. This was credit to the Ross defense. Bryce Estep, Adrian Ontiveros, Evan Garcia, Frankie Navarro, and Gabe Wensinger were ever present to shut down the Knights attack along with Baacke in goal with more several tremendous saves.
Coach Alex Coressel was quite pleased with the second half awakening. “We were absolutely fantastic in the second half. Had we played that way in a few of our earlier games those turn to wins. I’m so proud of these kids and the way they played the second half.”
Ross has three straight homes games over the next week. Bowling Green comes to Fremont for a Saturday game. Then Lima and Sandusky are at Ross Tuesday and Thursday.
Connor Growel (9) goes after a free ball.
Freshman Stephen Reiter (13) is a bit late to get in the way of a St Francis pass.
Fremont’s Evan Garcia (12) displays and excellent defensive effort during second half action.
Ross goalie Logan Baacke (6) has one of his several saves during first half action.
Braden Estep (5) is step for step as he chases the ball during the first half.