Osbourn Park beats Battlefield in boys soccer

By DAN CLENDANIEL For the News & Messenger
Published: April 18, 2008

As Osbourn Park's Drew Ruggles got set to launch a throw-in, he became focused on only one target—fellow sophomore Chase Ebel.

At 6-1, Ebel practically towered over most of the other soccer players on the field, especially those Battlefield Bobcats who were trying to mark him.

"He (Ebel) is a big target," said Ruggles, who takes all of his team's throw-ins. "We always practice that 'back-door through' play to him."

Ebel said he often just tries to redirect the ball to a teammate but spotted an opening at the far post.

"When you can tip it like that from that close it's always one of the toughest shots for a goalkeeper to stop," Ebel said.

Ruggles aimed him pass at Ebel, who redirected the ball smoothly inside the far corner of the net.

It was the only score of the game, as the Yellow Jackets dealt the Bobcats their first loss of the season, 1-0.

"This was the first game that we strung passes together," said OP's coach Larry Nemerow. "This was our best game, especially in the first half, even though we didn't score."

Battlefield first-year coach Ott Pimsaen agreed. "We practically gave them the first half. There was a lot of talking out there and unfortunately our guys lost their focus."

For Osbourn Park (5-1-2), the win represented a step forward for a team that lost 11 seniors from last year's state finalists, as well as two returning players to grades and another who moved to France.

Sophomores Ruggles and Ebel call-ups from last year's JV team, represent the new ver-sion of the team.

"One of the newspapers had them ranked in front of us," said Ruggles. "We wanted to show that we were better than them."

For Battlefield (7-1), Pimsaen hopes the first loss of the season serves as a wake-up call.

"This is the kind of loss they can learn from," he said. "Getting ranked swelled their heads and now they understand they're not as good as they thought they were."

Osbourn Park outshot the Bobcats in the first half, 8-3.

Battlefield had a chance to take the lead early in the second half, when Adam Clements took a pass from Franco Buzzalino, but Clements' shot missed.

Ten minutes into the second half, Ebel scored the Osbourn Park goal. Battlefield then went on the attack but did have any quality chances to score for the remainder of the game.

"We didn't play our game offensively," said Pimsaen. "The guys were hitting long balls, and that's not the way I coach. Now they know what they have to work on for the next time we play them."

Osbourn Park had one more chance to score in the second half, but Zack Roy's shot bounced off the far post.

"They had one golden opportunity and we had one or two," said Nemerow, whose team's only loss was a 2-0 shutout earlier in the season at the hands of Woodbridge. "Battlefield has been a quality team from the get-go and this is always a difficult place to play."