Chiles 0, Leon 4

Wednesday, February 2

District Semi-Final Match

It was a rainy and bitter cold evening last night as Chiles took on Leon in the District semi-final match. Chiles, having easily dispatched Wakulla 3-0 and tied a good Jacksonville Episcopal team 2-2 the prior two matches, went into the match comfortable and confident they could be playing Friday for the District Championship. In the prior meetings of the season Leon took the match at the Kick Off Classic, but a match in which many of the Chiles boys did not play. In the first district meeting Chiles defeated Leon 2-1 at the Leon pitch; in the return district match Leon prevailed 3-1 at Chiles. Sadly, however, it would be Leon which would prevail in this match.

Within the first minute of the match it was evident this was to be a very physical match, with the Leon defender making a hard foul on Chiles' Tyler Williams, earning the Leon defender a yellow (which some thought could have been a red) and requiring Williams to sit out a few minutes. As soon as Williams returned, though, he returned the favor, giving the Leon defender a hard foul and earning a yellow. After the first few minutes of the match it appeared the Chiles side was not up to the challenge, with Leon beginning to take control. At the 11 minute mark Leon mounted an attack and Chiles keeper Mike Turner had to come out of the net to try to save the goal opportunity, but was unable to do so as Leon's Costigan beat the defenders and Turner, putting Leon up 1-0. Still controlling the ball the majority of the time, Leon was able to go up 2-0 at the 29 minute mark, and 3-0 at the 33 minute mark to be up 3-0 at the half.

Although the boys played better the second half we were only playing Leon even and could not mount any serious attacks. In the 52d minute of the match Leon brought the ball down the left side and made a cross to a wide open Hugo Mio in the middle who blasted it. Mike Turner was able to get a hand on the shot, but it rolled into the net putting Leon up 4-0, where it stood at the final whistle.

In the second district semifinal match Lincoln easily defeated Rickards, and Leon and Lincoln will meet Friday night for the district championships.

Chiles' final record was 12-7-4 (5-3-1), with some quality wins and with all losses going to quality teams. Chiles had a successful trip to the Hickory Point tournament, tied Jacksonville Bolles and Jacksonville Episcopal, lost by one goal to Lincoln in the first match and tied Lincoln in the second match, defeated Leon in the season, and defeated Mosely twice. This was the final high school soccer match for 5 of the Chiles players: Bryan Allen, CJ Heard, Bobby Ryan, Andrew Struhs and team captain Gary Warner. This was also the final Chiles game for Sophomore David Struhs, who is planning on moving to Memphis at the end of the school year. These 6 will be sorely missed in the future, but a future which looks promising. Chiles has quality coaches and the support of the school administration, and Chiles has some very good underclassmen, both on the Varsity squad and the JV squad. I believe Coach Gill and Coach Bultmann are both anxious to get started to pave the way to another successful season.