Brophy 5
San Luis 0
By Alex Stanley ’12
THE ROUNDUP
Riggs Lennon ’13 completed a hat-trick in Brophy soccer’s 5-0 first-round playoff win against the San Luis Sidewinders Tuesday, Jan. 31.
The game, held at Chaparral High School, featured the No. 6 ranked Broncos against the No. 11 ranked Sidewinders.
Lennon ended his slow start to the game with a header off of a throw-in, a close-range cutback shot assisted by goalie Nate Sundermeier ’12 and a converted cross from Tyler McGehee ’12, all of these goals happening in the second half.
Although his goals were late in the game, Brophy controlled the game from the first whistle.
In the first half, San Luis possessing the ball in Brophy’s half was a scarcity. Ball play was held almost exclusively to San Luis’ half of the field.
In this time, Brophy came close to scoring several times, largely off of throw-ins and corner kicks.
It was on one of these opportunities that Brophy scored its first goal about 20 minutes into the game, via a David Lane ’13 header.
Crosses and good opportunities abounded for the Broncos, and Ryan Grotjohn ’13 scored the next goal about 10 minutes later: a close-range shot swept into the back netting.
Until halftime there were no solid chances on goal; the ball was primarily played within the middle third of the field.
The second half opened up with much the same gameplay, until Lennon’s streak of three goals in a little over 10 minutes.
Towards the end of the game, substitutes were massed onto the field for Brophy in order to rest the starters.
San Luis began to create some more goal-scoring opportunities, but nothing forcing goalie Sundermeier into anything other than a routine save.
“I’m very pleased,” soccer coach Mr. Marc Kelly ’87 said of the team’s performance.
“Great support from our fans and family, and it’s a great result for the Broncos,” he added.
As for rest of the playoffs, the Bronco’s opponent in the next round will be Gilbert, on Saturday, Feb. 4.
“Well we got to get through the quarterfinals now, so we’ll see where that takes us,” Kelly said.
