Vipers take a bite out of Richview’s lead with equalizer
A lack of ball possession kept Richview Saints from winning their second junior boys soccer game of the season April 23.
Tying Vaughan Road Vipers 1-1 at the Cedarvale-area high school, Saints coach Adam Foster said his team could’ve learned from their host’s steady-as-she-goes mentality.
“Vaughan Road played a nice possession game,” he said. “Good short passing and that’s definitely something that we need to take from them as a lesson for sure.
“Our goaltenders kept us in it today,” he added. “We were under some unnecessary pressure. I would call it defensive lapses but they won’t like me saying that.”
Even with a deficiency in ball control, Richview shook off a slow start and assailed Vipers netminder Aleksander Hondro with shots from strikers Dimitri Taxidis, Erik Tollis and Dylan Hrach.
The impromptu goalie, Hondro, volunteered his services since Vipers coach Nenad Mihailovic lacked a body to fill the hole.
Hondro’s inexperience between the pipes showed after a free kick by Tyler Witt got to Hrach.
Witt’s shot went off Hondro and rolled to Vytas Simkus who hoofed a shot off into the yawning net.
The weakly kicked marker disappointed Mihailovic.
“He allowed them to score a goal that any decent goalie could stop, but that’s soccer,” he said.
In the second half, Vaughan Road’s bite came back as Christopher Mannell picked up a loose Chris Lopez shot and flipped it past Peter Avenins.
The well-fought match on the pitch was a testament to the parity seen in the table, said Foster.
“This year the whole table seems to be very competitive. Last year there were a lot more wide gaps in scoring. I wouldn’t call them blowouts but there were a lot of differences between the teams,” he said. “This year all the teams seem much more in line with each other.”
“Every point is important in terms of how the playoffs happen,” he added. “Any game can make or break a team in terms of where you’re going to finish in the standings.”
Mihailovic agreed.
“So far I haven’t seen any strong teams, so this generation is not as strong as they used to be, but we’ll see,” he said. “We’ll see what’s going to happen.”