On a cooler late summer afternoon with 72F and while the Caro high school was experiencing the third day of school kick-off, the Caro Tigers were hosting the team from Oscoda for their first meet this season.

The coaching instructions were to play a defensive game to assess the quality of the visitors and then adjust accordingly. Fair enough, the hosts took control of the game and threatened to score first after Senior and Captain Trevin Phillips hit the cross bar with a long and strong shot outside the box without any outcome to the game. Other forward players from the Caro team (Freshmen Tanner Smith, Brady Rigg and Sang La, Sophomores Klayton Clish and Josiah Anderson,  and Senior Jon Mozden) had chances to capitalize on several opportunities but could not convert them into tangible goals. The Tigers were playing possession and connected with each other with some triangle passes using the support system. Then, there was this wierd action in the Caro zone close to the goalie where the ball was left unattended and had one forward player from Oscoda shoot it at a close range for a goal as he was quicker to respond and act. That was so demoralizing for the Tigers as they worked so hard to contain the visitors for almost 30 minutes played in the first half.

The half time speech from the coach was surprisingly very complimentary to the Caro Tigers as he appreciated the effort and great passing his team demonstrated. As he shared, the 0-1 score did not reflect the performance the Tigers gave at first half.

The instructions for the second half were to focus on applying pressure on their weak defense but without ignoring the fact that the players gave it all at first half to stay competitive. The fatigue started to kick in among the hosts and fair enough, one lack of attention at marking one running Oscoda player could not prevent the inevitable second goal when both the defender and the goalie could not reach out to the ball which was already making its way inside the Caro net. This second goal at around 15 minutes in the second half was a surprise to everyone since the plan was to tie the game and win it.

The young Caro team, with 3 key players on the bench not being able to play, had to improvise to maintain this score and walk away with only 2 goals down, despite the efforts and energy put in by most of the players. Again, the Caro goalie, Junior and Captain Coby Fetting made a total of 13 saves. 

The MVP player award was presented to Freshman and stopper Ryan Will who consistently stole the ball from the opponents, blocked shots and contributed immensely to his team to minimize the damage by his great defending skills.

Next game will be next week on Thursday September 5th traveling to North Branch for a 4:30 pm kick off game. The bus will leave at 3:00 pm from the Caro High School premises.

Enjoy your labor day weekend!