2012 showed the wealth of talent that lives in our area
January 3, 2013
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January 3, 2013
Every game feels like déjà vu for Vandebilt Catholic boys’ soccer coach Matt Kelso.
His team simply can’t consistently score goals.
Following Thursday’s 1-0 loss to St. Amant – the team’s eighth game without a goal this season – Kelso shared his frustration. He said the Terriers’ inability to score is threatening the team’s chances at making a deep playoff push – a seemingly annual occurrence for the Vandebilt program.
“If you can’t score goals, you don’t win games. It’s that simple,” Kelso said. “We defend superbly, but we have a sheer lack of confidence in front of the goal for some reason. That’s killing us right now.”
The lack of offense has plagued Vandebilt all season.
The Terriers started the season with a 1-3-1 record. They were shut out in four of those five games.
They rebounded from the dismal start by posting a 4-1-1 record in their next six games – a stretch that saw the team score 14 goals.
But Vandebilt returned to its offensive struggles in the past two games, losing 1-0 to both E.D. White and St. Amant.
That leaves Vandebilt with a 5-6-2 record and just 18 goals scored in 13 games.
That’s unchartered territory for the program that has been an annual contender for more than a decade.
“Never have I seen this. Never,” Kelso said. “I’ve never seen this from one of our teams. This is my eighth season at Vandebilt. I was telling the boys today – we’ve had situations here where at this time in the season, we’ve scored close to 100 goals. We’re lucky if we’ve scored 20 so far this year. It’s a difficult situation.”
Kelso said moving forward, the Terriers have to simply get their confidence back offensively.
He said the team’s struggles around the goal remind him of a basketball player who has lost his or her moxie at the free throw line.
The coach said Vandebilt works on fundamentals and offense throughout practices.
Even there, it’s a grind to get the ball into the back of the net – the mental aspect of the struggles have become that deep.
“These are things we go over in training all of the time,” Kelso said. “We practice it time and time and time again and even in training, we don’t score goals. It’s confidence and attitude – that’s all. You’ve got to stand up and know your role and understand your role.
“We try and break bad habits. It just takes a while for a habit to change. … The kids just go back to the bad habits when it’s the game situation.”
The lone Terrier supplying offense this season has been forward Andrew Teuton, who Kelso described as the team’s only consistent threat.
But because Teuton has been so good, opponents have shaded their defense toward him, which has stymied Vandebilt’s attack.
Kelso said the lion’s share of the team’s problems would be alleviated if a second and third option would rise up and gain confidence. He believes he has players who are talented enough to do so. Why they aren’t is a mystery.
“We rely too heavily on Andrew Teuton,” Kelso said. “If Andrew’s not on his game and he’s not scoring goals, then we’re not scoring in that game. That’s the bottom line. It’s unfortunate. No one else wants to step up. We have the kids who want to be in the supporting role. We don’t have anyone who wants to step up and be the hero.
“And that’s what we need right now. We need a hero.”
Vandebilt’s offensive woes are hiding the Terriers’ dominant defensive group.
The Terriers have hovered around .500 this season because of a defense that has been stellar all season long.
Vandebilt has posted seven shutouts this year. In two other games (including against St. Amant), they allowed just one goal.
“We’re stellar. We’re stellar in the back,” Kelso said. “They give us a chance to win games.”
If only the Terriers could score.
Kelso said if the Terriers flip the switch and turn things around, Vandebilt could be a force to be reckoned with.
Until then, struggles continue and a coach is left scratching his head.
“If we could score, we’d be No. 1 in the state,” Kelso said. “But the fact is that we might be out of the top 10 this week. That’s where we are.
“We’re not going to quit. We’re not going to give up. We’re going to keep on persevering and hopefully one game it clicks and it allows us to change this thing around. Until this, this is where we are.”
Vandebilt Catholic soccer player Grant Rodriguez fights a St. Amant defender during last Thursday’s 1-0 loss to the Gators. The Terriers have struggled to score in this season. They have only 18 goals in 13 games – a mark that has the team scratching its heads with the most critical portion of the season looming.
