1 man down, 1 goal up
BUTLER TWP — Cassian Widenhofer and John Fleming were both red in the face and soaking in sweat.
For the final 56 minutes, the Butler boys soccer team played down a man against Hopewell. It was a chance for Golden Tornado coach Troy Mohney to see how deep his team was.
Butler survived and Widenhofer scored with 6 minutes, 44 seconds remaining to give the Golden Tornado a season-opening 1-0 win over Hopewell Saturday.
“We played better with 10 guys than 11 guys,” Mohney said. “I think they had one shot on goal after we had our guy thrown out. They played calm and well.”
Butler keeper Adam Voelker was red carded for swearing with 15:37 left in the first half. Voelker was upset over a hard tackle from a Vikings' defender that sent a teammate tumbling to the ground.
As a result, Voelker is automatically suspended for tonight's Section 2-AAA opener at Hampton.
The game was physical from the opening whistle. Hopewell's Kyle Everette was yellow carded in the first half and Butler freshman Tyler Rankin was shaken up by an aggressive challenge in the second half.
How physical the game was took the Vikings out of their strategy.
“We talked at halftime to use the width and use our fullbacks to spread them out a little bit because they had one guy on top to make him work,” Hopewell coach Nick Mohrbacher said. “We didn't do that. We got caught up in playing physical. We didn't play tactically smart.”
While Mohney was pleased with his team's fitness, he feels the Golden Tornado need to be smarter with their challenges. He was surprised more cards weren't issued.
“I think we were the ones that started the chippyness, which we'll talk about,” Mohney said. “I want my guys to play physical, but I want them to play within the rules. There's a fine line between overaggressive and fouling and being physical and within the rules of the game.”
Butler's defense continued to play well, despite the heat and Voelker's absence. The Golden Tornado (1-0) limited the Vikings to two shots on goal.
“I think we did pretty good with it actually,” Windenhofer said.
Hopewell's best scoring chance came before the red card. Everette headed a corner kick just wide of the post in the 19th minute.
“I feel like the second half we kept our heads calm and didn't make any stupid fouls,” Butler defender John Fleming said. “We kept our focus, getting the first pass and going forward.”
Jace Stutz nearly put Butler ahead with around 18 minutes remaining. Stutz hit a flying header off a cross from Jared Weyand that was parried away by Hopewell goalie Eli Loncar.
“I think we were well organized in the second half and took our chances,” Fleming said.
Logan Angert swung the ball in the box that helped put the Golden Tornado ahead. The ball landed in front of Widenhofer, who put the ball in the top of the net.
“I saw Logan with his back turned and I started yelling as loud as I could,” Widenhofer said. “I was open and he found a way to get it to me.”
