Tritons blank Bulldogs 1-0
Sure, Austen Hopson could have claimed he’d diagrammed the play, gotten to a prescribed position and finished in the way a senior co-captain with significant experience is expected to finish.
But he was happy that the truth worked out just as well.
The Mariner defender conceded to being in the right place at the right time Friday night when his deflection of Trevor Jurkowski’s shot got past Ida Baker goalkeeper Trey Crispin for the only goal as the Tritons claimed a 1-0 win in a District 3A-13 match at Tony McKenna Field.
“It wasn’t supposed to be designed like that,” Hopson said. “I just happened to be there. I stayed with the play and (Jurkowski) drove it in and I just flicked it.”
The decisive sequence started with Erick Rivera’s corner kick from the left side, and, when the drive was redirected outside the front of the goalmouth area, Jurkowski quickly spun it back toward the net.
Crispin was lined up to make that stop, but Hopson’s intervention changed the flight of the ball just enough that it skipped by Crispin’s right arm just past the 11-minute mark of the opening half.
It was the second of what ultimately wound up as 11 shots on goal for the charged-up Tritons, who improved to 12-1-3 overall and completed an unbeaten district regular season at 6-0-1.
The lone local blemish came in a 1-1 home tie with Cape Coral on Nov. 18.
The Seahawks were 7-1 winners at East Lee County Friday, which puts them at 5-0-1 in the district with one game remaining. Hopson expects the eventual success of the Tritons’ season to be based on what he figures is another playoff go-round with he Seahawks sometime next month.
Mariner is 0-2-1 in three head-to-head meetings since beating the Seahawks in the District 3A-11 championship game in January 2013.
“It matters everything to me, and I think it matters everything to us, too,” Hopson said. “When the tournament comes, it’s our time to come out on top. We’re looking forward to it. That’s what we do.”
Crispin stopped the final four shots of the first half and all five in the second for Baker, which was denied in all five of its total shot attempts against Tritons goalkeeper Alex Collazo.
The Bulldogs came out strong and scored first before allowing four straight goals in a 4-2 loss to Cape Coral on Dec. 2, but they were consistently beaten to the ball early on against Mariner before playing far better in the second half and finally sustaining pressure in the final 15 minutes.
Coach Scott Wills addressed the tentative play in his halftime chat, and seemed at least pleased afterward that they’d finished the night stronger than they’d started it. The game was also just two days after what he’d labeled “our worst performance of the season” in a 4-0 loss at Gulf Coast in Naples.
“As a coach, you certainly want to come out with a win, but we were looking for little improvements,” Wills said. “We were looking for better team play, better energy. (Mariner does) a really good job defensively, and they always have. I remember that from playing them last year. Their coach does a great job of teaching them how to attack the ball and to attack the ball under control, but to be there quickly.”