HART — Whitehall's sustained offensive attack may not have produced all the dividends coach Dillon McCarthy hoped for Wednesday night, but two goals proved to be enough in a 2-0 victory, the team's second straight in West Michigan Conference play.
The Vikings manufactured plenty of scoring opportunities and may have put more on the board, McCarthy said, with more aggressiveness from the offense.
"We string five or six passes together and then I'm screaming at them to shoot the ball, because you
can't score goals unless you shoot the ball," McCarthy said. "Offensively, we
are not totally satisfied with that outcome. I thought we had some
great opportunities that we didn't capitalize on; everything
to get to that potential goal scoring moment was there and we
just missed in the final third.
"We've still got a lot to work on, but lots
of keeping our head up and understanding a win is a win."
Whitehall came close to putting two goals on the board earlier in the first half, one when a great shot by Tommy Leeke deflected off the far post and Hart keeper Miguel Escamilla was able to corral the bouncing ball, and the other when Carter Burrous sent Escamilla diving to the turf to make a save.
It was sophomore Ryan Bowen, though, who finally broke the seal with a wicked shot from the right side that went in on a very tough angle with 9:27 to play in the first half.
The Vikings controlled the action in the second half, too, but again took a while to be rewarded before Burrous took an assist from Keegan Frees on a transition scoring opportunity and deposited it into the net.
Whitehall's Stefan Haas maneuvers the ball away from Hart's Joseph Osorio-Espinoza during Wednesday's WMC game at Hart. The Vikings won, 2-0.
Frees and Javi LeBlanc have emerged as an impressive senior duo on the back end of the defense. Both were instrumental in aiding keeper Alex Winczewski for the team's second consecutive shutout win. LeBlanc has shown impressive willingness to play physically against bigger offensive players, and Frees is in on every defensive play he can reach as well.
"I love those kids," Burrous said of his defensive teammates. "They're so amazing. They're fun
to play with. They're so competitive, and they're always a
hype. It's just super fun to play with them."
McCarthy also praised their leadership, also shouting out fellow defenseman Raymond Hesse, who "plays like he's 6-7," with great energy.
"Kudos to our defense, because I feel like they're finally
connecting to the point where they're shifting collectively," McCarthy said. "They're moving together. We're not seeing a 40-yard gap between defense and midfield. That helps a ton."
While results are always the most noticeable thing in a game, the Vikings have maintained a developmental outlook for the season. With only seven upperclassmen on the roster, the team is working on building its depth. McCarthy said he makes use of the MHSAA's 'flex' rule that allows players to play in up to three halves of action in a single day between the JV and varsity games.
"It's this balance of how do we help individually
develop our players so they're their best selves, all while collectively
making sure our JV team and our varsity team are as successful as
they can be?" McCarthy said. "It's a lot, but it's also, I
think, what's going to help us in the postseason.
"We try to have some urgency in everything we do from a
practice standpoint. When you lose the ball in the final
third, do you hustle to get it back? The kids know, too, that I keep
subs pretty fresh, so when that energy isn't there, we do have depth on
the bench that will step into that."
It's a strategy that seems to be paying off early. There's already been noticeable improvement, and there's still over a month until the district tournament, with many high-quality opponents still to play to help Whitehall sharpen its skills.
"It's good to
see that growth, because it wasn't there week one," McCarthy said. "We're not perfect yet, but growth is happening, and that's, as a
coach, the only thing I can measure."
