Offensive pressure results in Rockie’s win over LaPorte
PLYMOUTH — Once they started Plymouth’s Rockies never took the foot off the gas pedal in taking a 5-0 win over LaPorte at the Kindt Soccerplex Monday night.
A bit sluggish in the first two minutes or so, the turning point was a free kick for LaPorte after a foul in the goal box just five minutes into the game.
Plymouth starting goalie Alan Cantero had none of it, turning away the one-on-one opportunity by LaPorte’s Ethan Blank. It was smooth sailing from there.
“That’s going to change the dynamics of the game,” said Plymouth boss Grant Masson. “That electrified us after that. It was kind of like we were offended. You could see it. Everybody’s head went up.”
Plymouth went on their patented non-stop attack style of play and kept the ball in the LaPorte zone with nearly constant pressure on Slicer goalie Dylan West in the first half.
That constant pressure led to the Rockies’ first goal at 26:44 by Zahir Aguilar which would be enough in the end for the Plymouth win.
Levi Hutchinson had a dream night with his first hat trick of the season hitting the first on a header off a corner kick just one minute after Aguilar’s goal.
He got his second on a breakaway in front of the goal with 2:42 left in the half and then was rewarded with a penalty kick for his final goal with 2:11 to go in the game to make the final score.
In between Johan Rivera found himself alone in front of the LaPorte goal with 12:33 to play and made it count for his score.
“Today was a team victory,” said Masson. “We had some young guys in there who contributed to the win.”
“Levi Hutchinson had a breakout game we’ve been waiting for that,” he said. “We knew he had it in him. He played awesome.”
LaPorte didn’t back off coming out after making a halftime adjustment and pushing the issue themselves early in the period but Rivera’s goal took the assertiveness away from the Slicer offense.
“They played a guy in the middle of the hole between our lines that caused us a little trouble until I told them all we had to do was step up and take him away,” said Masson. “What they wanted us to do is bring our midfield back to pick him up and leave that hole in midfield. We wanted to deny that so we just stepped up on the D.”
“It was something new,” he said. “We hadn’t seen that yet and they got a few chances. that’s something that we will watch video on and be prepared for because that’s something that Warsaw will do on Thursday for sure.”
“The whole midfield I thought was tremendous and I thought the defense should get man of the match. They kept them out.”
Plymouth takes their first win to go with an opening night tie at Bremen. State-ranked and unbeaten NLC rival Warsaw will be the next test for the Rockies on Thursday night at Warsaw.
“We will match up physically,” said Masson. “They are ranked and we aren’t but I like that. You can see our fitness level is high and we can run with them and we can body up with them. We’re looking forward to Thursday.”
