VAN WERT - The 2008 version of the Van Wert High School Soccer Team has seen some success in the pre-season thus far.

After a solid week of grueling two-a-days, Van Wert opened the scrimmage season last Tuesday night, as they traveled to Ottoville to take on the Big Green. Ottoville defeated VW 8-1 in the 2007 pre-season and then advanced to the regional finals later in the season. The Big Green returned the nucleus of that team, but this time around, the locals gave them a game. Ottoville won by a 3-1 count, as senior captain and 2007 All-WBL performer Blake Davis tallied the lone Cougar goal. Jacob Hood had a successful initiation into goal-keeping for Van Wert, making many great saves.

Van Wert then entertained the St. Marys Roughriders Thursday night at the Cougars' new home field on John Brown Road. Van Wert, who had never defeated St. Marys in their history, shocked the ‘Riders by a 3-2 count. Blake Davis again opened the Cougars' scoring, while teammate David Racster added two more goals, one on a break-away and one on a header from inside the box off a corner kick. The Cougars offense also had another scoring opportunity just miss, as senior Jonathon Burden knocked a shot off the left post.

Now 1-1, the Cougars headed to St. Marys Saturday for their third scrimmage of the pre-season. The ‘Riders hosted a "super-scrimmage", entertaining three teams: Van Wert, LCC, and a team from Sidney. Each team played one-half of soccer against each other. This super-scrimmage only counted as one scrimmage against the VW schedule (a team is permitted four scrimmages per season). Van Wert opened the scrimmage against their counterparts from Sidney and scored a 2-0 victory. A mistake by the opponents gave VW their first goal, and then Blake Davis gave the Cougars some cushion with his third goal of the pre-season. The Cougars' offense displayed some crisp passing as they out-shot their opponents throughout the half of soccer.  Van Wert then took on LCC and fought the T-Birds to a 0-0 tie. Both teams came close to scoring, but VW goalie Jake Hood turned away the T-Bird advances, while Jonathon Burden again found the post on one of his break-away attempts. Van Wert then faced a fired-up St. Marys team for their final half of the day. After each team saw scoring opportunities go by the wayside, St. Marys won the half with a penalty kick goal for a 1-0 win.

Van Wert, now 2-2-1, has a week to prepare for their final pre-season tune-up before the regular season begins. The Cougars face Spencerville at home on Saturday, August 23 at 10:00 a.m. in their fourth scrimmage of the year. Van Wert then will open up with three tough tests to start the 2008 season the following week. The Cougars face LCC at Lima Stadium on August 26, entertain WBL-power Elida on August 28, and then end the first week of competition by hosting Lima Temple Christian on Saturday, August 30. Temple Christian returns their entire team from last season's district finals.

"We are extremely excited about the upcoming season.  Our guys have worked really hard during the off season and two-a-days.  We take pride in our work ethic and believe that our work will produce record results this year," VW Head Coach Derek Stemen said.

Comments (11)