Mid County Madness... Nederland vs PnG

[sharkfutbol]

This should be a great game..  Everyone  has played them now so  .. having competed against both.. what your opinions...  Add the rivalry energy to this game... always classics..

[sharkfutbol]

Nederland beat us.. PnG didnt.  If the rain holds off.  Nederland by 3.  If it rains.  Ned by 2.  With the hurt zimmerman a better game.  Coach Sandell will have his team ready to prove my pick wrong....  good luck

[bullets13]

I'm leaning towards Nederland as well, but in these games, anything can happen.

[emac08]

they are both really great teams.

when we played against them, i thought png had a few more "close calls" with the shots on goal.

but i thought nederland moved the ball better.

just depends on who shows up to play..

I'm gonna go with PNG in OT by 1.

[a-fan]

Nederland 1 PNG 0 in overtime

Good job Bulldogs.  Very intense game.

[KFDM COOP]

Congrats!!!!!!

[KFDM COOP]

Nederland pulls out 1-0 victory in OT

By Cody Pastorella

The Port Arthur News

NEDERLAND — A goal from the back of Ryan Washburn with 6:18 to play in the first half of overtime gave the Bulldogs a big 1-0 win over Port Neches-Groves in Friday night's District 22-4A soccer matchup at Prather Field.

The lone goal of the night was far from a classic. Nederland's Jordan Landry sent an inbounds pass from the right side of the goal. His pass went into a host of players from each team but the Bulldogs had more guys and the tallest guy in Washburn standing nearest to the ball. Washburn just kind of backed his body into the pass, sending the ball into the top right corner of the goal.

"We like to attack and when you are attacking as much as we were tonight, the idea is to hopefully get a play just like that, where the ball just bounces your way," said Nederland coach Rob Bledsoe. "We have a lot of goals from throw ins this year, so it's a situation we are used to.

"Overall, I think we outshot them but they played great defense. This was a great victory for us and we are happy to have it."

With the win, Nederland improves to 9-3-1 overall and 7-1-1 in district play, keeping sole possession of second place.

The Indians, meanwhile, fall to 6-4-2 overall and 4-3-2 in league play.

The Bulldogs will be at home on Tuesday when they play West Orange-Stark for the start of the second half of district play.

PN-G will stay at its current home (Prather Field) for its next game, which comes Tuesday night against Silsbee.

While the Dogs stayed on the offensive for most of the game, it was their defense that really made the difference.

The Indians almost struck first in overtime but thanks to a great play from Jake Kemp, Nederland continued to keep PN-G scoreless.

Standing next to goalie Tyler Vidrine, Kemp deflected a shot from Kris Halbert that saved the day for his Bulldogs. When the ball left Halbert's foot, everyone was thinking goal except Kemp, who maneuvered over toward the weak side of the net at just the right time to clear the shot.

The Indians immediately gathered the deflection and ripped off another shot, but Vidrine caught the laser and punted the ball away.

PN-G head coach Don Sandell said Nederland's defense was as dominating of a performance as he has ever seen.

"They were a step quicker tonight," he said. "They were always in the right spot at the right time and they were always there just before our guys. We made some good adjustments that looked like they were going to work and they still stopped us.

"They made it so difficult for us to get an open look or even get a shot off for that matter."

[soccer stud08]

To the author of the article in The Port Arthur News:

The goal Nederland scored in OT did not go off the back of Ryan Washburn, He definatly headed it into the upper 90 of PNG's goal. And Nederland actually had less players in the 18 yard box than PNG.

"far from classic" Try not to be so negative and one-sided.

[bullets13]

This is a nice win for Nederland.  Congrats to both teams on a hard-fought game.

[soccerr3]

sorry soccer stud but it went off his back...