Early-season soccer tests proving worthwhile
South River girls soccer coach John Sis, along with most other coaches, loves to challenge his team with a tough early season schedule. Of course, he would like to win every game, but he feels there's much more to be gained from seeing how his team stacks up against a quality opponent.
This past weekend, the Seahawks took defending Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference champ Spalding to overtime before falling, 1-0. On Wednesday, the Hawks traveled to Class 3A runner-up Fallston and were able to sneak away with a 1-0 win.
"The quality of our players are basically due to them, their club coaches and parents. So basically, what we're trying to do is just maybe find weaknesses and see where we can maybe tweak things a little bit to improve on things," Sis said.
"We don't want to dodge anybody," Sis added. "We want to play anybody because everybody makes the playoffs. So if everybody makes the playoffs, why not play everybody tough? Worse case, what is going to happen is we're going to get fit and maybe lose some games. ... I like what this can do for us mentally."
Fallston coach Alyson Cammann was quick to agree with the benefits of going up against top teams. The Cougars are young and inexperienced in many places with several members from last year's team graduated. The Cougars stacked up respectably Wednesday night against the more experienced Seahawks.
