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THE SEVERNA PARK CREW TUNES UP INDOORS
The Severna Park Crew, the Green Hornet’s Premiere U-16 Select Soccer Team, has jumped out in front of the pack again. The Severna Park boys soccer club continues its climb to the top of their soccer world. In the Fall the Crew dominated their age group in scoring and finished in third place in Division II of the National Capital Soccer League (NCSL), missing out of first place by just one game. The Crew hopes to have earned their way into the top Division I level, and anxiously awaits word from the NCSL as to their Spring assignment. Leaving nothing to chance, the Crew has been working hard to improve their proficiency in the Spring by entering two indoor sessions at Meyers Pavilion in Baltimore, this Winter. “We work hard indoors to sure up our short sided game and increase our speed of play, said Coach Mike Lay. If the Crew players learn to regularly distribute the ball under the close intensive pressure of indoors, then they will have an easier time of it when they play outside, again.”
Half of the Crew players, lead by Steve Finlayson, entered the Wednesday session playing a year up at the U-17 level. The Crew, a younger U-16 team, consisted of Nick Hofmann, Nick Finnigan, Drew Campbell, Patrick Houck, Eric Hallberg, Andrew Finlayson, Derek Cope, James Meekins, Kyle Simmons, goalie Chris Heins, and occasionally, Colin Lay. The team captured the league championship with a record of 9 wins and only a single defeat. The Crew scored 66 goals in ten games on their way to defeating such worthy adversaries as: the Baltimore Bays, the Baltimore United Bays and the Bone Crushers. The remarkable thing about the Crew is that at any given moment, a new hero steps forward and scores that special goal, or makes that spectacular defensive play that saves a goal. “These players always pull together to victory, observed Steve Finlayson. No matter what the challenge or the score, this Wednesday indoor Crew team never backed down, and always found a way to win together.”
The second indoor Crew team played in the U-16 age level in the Saturday session, and was lead by Mike Jankiewicz. The Saturday indoor Crew team exploded from the outset, and also earned a first place finish in their league. These Crew players put 98 shots in the back of the net, and gave up only 21 goals, in the nine games they played. The Crew’s record was 8 wins, 0 losses and 1 tie. The Saturday indoor team was comprised of Colin Lay, Nick Hofmann, Nigel Fields, Adam Jankiewicz, Matty Rogers, Pat Houck, Kyle Fairchild, Geoffrey Saunders, and Chris Heins. The team always played at an impressive level, with a confidence and a pace indicative of the Crew. The passing was crisp and precise, the players always found the open man, and they always worked for the best finish. Everyone got back on defense and marked well. The Saturday Crew competed with other local teams including the Severna Park Attackers and the Severna Park Gold. Mike Jankiewicz praised the team for working on its passing game whenever the Crew found that it had outscored its opponent by many goals.
Coach Lay emphasized that by playing soccer indoors twice each week, the Crew not only worked hard to maintain its NCSL Division II team skill level over the Winter break, but the many touches his players got by splitting up the team helped each player with their individual ball control, passing and shooting. Each player needs to react quicker playing indoors, since they rarely enjoy the time and space, they usually have on the large outdoor soccer field. The test for each player is how they react to that pressure. Coach Lay said, “I am happy to report that the Crew players met the challenge head on, maintained their poise and composure, and played soccer like it was meant to be played, with skill and good sportsmanship. I know that for all the effort the players invested this Winter, the Severna Park Crew will surely see many dividends in the Spring.”
The Crew is scheduled to compete in March in the Bowie-Freestate Soccer Tournament, and is also slated to play in the Maryland State Cup, before getting back to NCSL play.
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