Hartland (0) at Brighton(8) 8/27/03

 

The KVC Season opener for both teams, home opener for Brighton, was played under the lights at Sloan Field. Hartland is a better team than last year, whereas, Brighton simply reloaded…again.

 

This Brighton team has 12 players returning from last years Division 1 State Semi-Finalist team and Regional Champions and 4 of those players were part of the 2001 State Semi-Finalist and Regional Championship under now retired coach Dusan Shiposh. Depth and experience… a coach’s dream and an opponents’ nightmare.

 

In addition, Brighton reloaded heavily with several Division Premier Club players from the area that compete regularly throughout the Midwest against the stiffest competition available. This years’ roster is staffed with 2 Sophomores, 4 Juniors and a staggering 17 Seniors. The depth of this year’s team is endless. In fact, they even have depth at the team manager position with the 2003 Girl’s manager, Erin Murphy returning to help the 2003 Boy’s team with strong assistance from Courtney Finnerty.

 

The Game started a little late due to the JV game running a little late. The JV Bulldogs handed the JV Eagles a 6-0 defeat to open there season earlier.

 

In the past Brighton has been known for it’s defense and only scored when needed. This can be a dangerous pattern when playing a defensive opponent. This is would prove to be very different season opener for Brighton than the recent past.

 

At 2:25 of the first half Matt Frego pushed a through ball through to Tim Buscholtz for the first tally of the season. Tim then offered up a pass to Brad Murphy who calmly put it in the back of the net at 14:31 in the first. 12 minutes later John Palmer sent a pinpoint crossing pass to a streaking Adam Tillman who hammered it home.

 

Three goals would be a good start for the season opener but the ‘Dogs were still in the first half. The hardworking defense of Hartland, lead my Senior Captain George Wimbrow, thwarted several other attempts as did some outstanding goal keeping by Josh Deckman. However, at the 29:28 mark of the first half Dan Greenhalgh’s corner kick found that back of the net via Brad Murphy’s header redirection. Three minutes later Brad scored again on another header by hooking up with Brett Tillman, completing his hat trick while still in the first half. John Palmer took advantage of a defensive mistake to tally an unassisted goal at 36:45 of the first. The first half scoring was finished off when Sophomore Kenny Simon sent a corner kick in that Senior Art Higgins finished off with a beautiful header past and outstretched Josh Deckman of Hartland.

 

Deepak Shrivaman, Brighton’s Varsity Head Coach, decided to challenge his team by have them play a more controlled possession game. While this can be un-entertaining to the average fan, it can be a thing of beauty to the soccer purist. Brighton maintained possession for more than 85% of the second half. A very deliberate and determined Bulldog curbed the appetite for goals until the 35:27 mark of the second half when a John Palmer shot caromed off of the Hartland keeper into the path of a charging Ryan Martin who netted his first Varsity goal.

 

Brighton out shot the Eagles 23 – 6. Most importantly was that the shots came from more than 12 different players. The 8 goals scored were by 6 different players and the 7 assists tallied came from 6 different players as well. An extremely balanced scoring attack with a suffocating defense was on the menu for today’s game. The depth paid off as all players played and several got valuable Varsity experience to be utilized throughout the 2003 campaign.