On perfect soccer weather and summer-like conditions, the Tigers were hosting the Lakers who apparently gained a talented exchange student from Spain and showed up with 10 players after dropping 4 eligible players. The word from the coach was to tightly mark that Spanish player without giving him any room. The coach has played in his young age against Spanish players in Europe and knew the damage this player could do. He in fact scored 7-8 goals so far in this season.The strategy was also to play possession until they get tired and score the first goal and control the ball.

The officials whistled for the first half to start and without any warning, the Lakers took possession of the ball and fair enough the Spanish player # 11 (Alvaro Brea-Diaz) dribbled the defenders and passed the ball to his unmarked teammate who didn't hesitate to surprise the Caro goalie and Captain Coby Fetting. It was only 2 minutes of play. The coach contained his frustration as his team didn't execute the plan at the start. He didn't have to say anything since the players knew exactly what happened and tried to regroup and follow the plan. The midfield controlled by both Captain Phillips and Sophomore Josiah Anderson helped putting the pressure up front in the visitors zone. Indeed, on a beautiful corner kick by Junior Aaron Pierce who just came back from his ankle injury found Phillips who headed an amazing ball in the net to tie the game to 1-1. Pierce got his first assist of the season since he missed all the first 7 games. The battle was happening in the midfield as the Lakers were trying to gain control of the game but couldn't contain the revived Caro machine. On another corner kick supplied this time by Sophomore Anderson, Junior Pierce deflected the ball with his knee for his first goal of the season. Now the Tigers have gained some momentum and believed in themselves and what they can do. Ten minutes later, it was not over for the Caro since Freshman Brady Rigg passed the ball to Junior Pierce who shot it towards the Lakers goalie who saved it with a rebound that found Senior and Captain Jon Mozden who finished beautifully with a nice shot past their goaltender for his second goal of the season. Obviously, the Tigers has a comfortable 2 goal advantage but were aware of the danger the talented visiting team can present. Just to add to the agony, the Lakers defender stopped a ball with his hands in the box for a penalty kick, which was unfortunately was not converted into a goal by Captain Phillips who shot it wide on top of the cross bar. The assigned Caro player was struggling marking tightly the Spanish player who tried multiple times to minimize the damage by threatening the Caro goaltender but without any outcome.

The half time speech was more about marking that talented #11 Alvaro and playing dispersed in positions to open the visitors up and make it hard for them to chase the ball. The coach also noticed some irregularities in ball control and passing which he insisted must be corrected in the second half.

Second half started with the Caro players hoping to end this game with their first win. However, the visitors never stopped and neither gave up since the Spanish player again was making the plays and was trying to disturb the Caro defense with his amazing ball control skills and movements. Fair enough, he was able to escape his opponent who was marking him to surprise goalie Fetting for his first goal of the game. Now the coach couldn't hide his frustration to the player who was supposed to mark this player but still encouraged him to keep marking him to prevent him to score more goals, which he did the rest of the game. A couple of breakaways are worth a mention here, with Freshman Tanner Smith, Sophomores Adam Fisch and Ayush Patel who came close to score their first goals with some breakaways. The officials whistled the end of the game for Caro to secure their first win of the season 3-2 against the talented visiting Lakers. The Spanish player was contained with only 1 goal and 1 assist which could have been worse. Hopefully this first win will boost up the Caro powerhouse and continue on to the successes to come!

Captain and Junior and goaltender Coby Fetting made a total of 7 saves to keep his team in the game and contribute to this first win of the season for his team.

The MVP player trophy was presented to returning Junior Aaron Pierce who finished with 1 goal and 2 assists and blocked many shots and also marked the talented Spanish player.

Next game is away at Bad Axe (200 N Barrie Rd.)on Wednesday September 18 at 5:30 pm. The bus leaves from Caro High School at 3:45 pm.