COLUMBUS: Flashes soccer is shutout machine

Florence starts matches win total of a year ago

By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
   Shutouts were the name of the game in the first week of the Florence High School boys soccer season.
   Fortunately for the Flashes, all but one their four games was a shutout in their favor. At 3-1, they have already matched last year’s regular-season win total, and their one loss came to highly regarded Trenton Catholic Academy.
   ”We’re playing OK,” said Florence head coach Michael Flynn. “Trenton Catholic is by far the class in the area. Pemberton is rebuilding, Life Center is rebuilding, and Burlington City, that was a good win.
   ”We have to keep playing defense. We have to keep the ball out of the dangerous areas. That’s our key to winning. We’re not going to be outscoring teams and running with them.”
   New sophomore goalie Kellen Groover already has three shutouts with a defense that seems to be heeding Flynn’s defensive calling. Florence opened the year with a 4-0 win over Pemberton with Greg Perri scoring three goals, Nick Stovall-Kurtz notching the other goal, and Kehnide Akinmboni registering an assist.
   The Flashes followed that win with a 3-0 triumph over Life Center Academy. Perri had two more goals, and Akinmboni had the other. After a 4-0 loss to TCA, Florence responded with a 2-0 win over Burlington City with goals from Tolulope Abiona and Jay Pakan. Perri and Stovall-Kurtz had assists, while Groover had 10 saves.
   While Flynn believes his team has to play a defensive style to give itself the best chance to win, he’s been pleasantly surprised to see some of the early offense.
   ”The last game, against Burlington City, the goals were by a freshman and sophomore,” Flynn said. “For us, that’s just a bonus. We look for Greg to carry a lot of the offensive load, not only scoring, but distributing. He has the leadership to create and carry the other players.
   ”It’s early in the season. We have a lot of tough games coming up, and we haven’t been hit by the injury bug luckily.”
   Flynn, though, expects that scoring goals will be tougher when the quality of opponents improves. It’s why he continues to harp on the importance of staying sound defensively.
   ”We’re a team where we probably have one guy, Greg Perri, who really is a threat up top with a quality shot,” Flynn said. “We have a lot of young, inexperienced guys up there. You have to keep yourself in the match. That can be good for us. As long as you’re in the game, you give yourself a chance to win.”
   Florence has tried to keep it easy in the back. They’re just trying to be sharp in front of Groover, has proven to be a quick study.
   ”He’s a sophomore, and he’s made some quality saves,” Flynn said. “Even Trenton Catholic could have been a little worse, but he played well. He’s learning, just like all the other guys. He’s got three clean sheets. He’s still looking to improve his game — punts and stuff like that. It’s a big learning curve for guys like that.
   ”We’ve got some young guys back there, but we have some senior leadership. We have a young guy in the goal. On defense, we have two sophomores, a sophomore in goal, a sophomore at left marking back. We’re kind of young. You have to make sure you don’t leave them unprotected. You have to have some older guys around.”
   They figure to be tested with the likes of Westhampton on the horizon. Westhampton was able to score on TCA. A scheduled game against Riverside this week also could be quite a challenge.
   ”If we play the style we can play, we can play with anybody,” Flynn said. “We can lose to anybody too. The good thing this year is we’ve not made any mental mistakes. We got in bad spots last year. We must have had five or six own goals. You have to make sure you’re in the right spot at the right time. You have to make the right pass. So far, we’ve done the little things right.”
   Flynn didn’t see that out of last year’s group until the end of the season when they put together an encouraging effort in the state tournament.
   ”Last year, we caught a nice little run in the playoffs,” Flynn said. “We finally figured out what to do. This year, we’re trying to start right off with the things you need to do to get some wins.
   ”It’s a good start,” he added. “Hopefully we can keep it going and keep a nice winning streak.”