CBC Soccer Overcomes Injuries to Down Whitfield

With five potential starters sidelined with injuries, the CBC soccer team needed to workout reserves in live action.

With a three goal lead by the 25th minute, the Cadets had more than enough time to sit three starters for the second half of a 5-0 nonconference victory Tuesday night over visiting Whitfield.

“We haven’t established a starting lineup because we haven’t had everyone to choose from,” CBC coach Terry Michler said.

“Every time we play, we put a starting team out there, but everybody is playing. So right now we’re building depth, so when we get a starting lineup, we can go pretty far into the lineup with people that have experience.”

Playing a Whitfield (1-3-0) team that starts five sophomores, CBC (2-1-1) planned to pressure the Warriors early and often.

In the third minute, CBC junior Julius Adewumni created a breakaway by picking off a free kick across the backline. Adewumni carried it 40 yards before slotting the ball past Whitfield goalkeeper Tony Minorini for his second goal of the season.

“The longer you let a team in the game, the more confidence they build through the game,” Michler said. “The best answer for that is getting in the game early. Luckily for us, our first goal came directly from them.”

About 20 minutes later, CBC senior midfield Tim Michel converted another miscue in the back by Whitfield. Senior defender Carter Desloge attempted to clear a ball from inside the 6, but it deflected off senior teammate John Acker to the foot of Michel, who buried it for his first goal of the season.

Cadet senior midfield Justin Bilyeu added his second and third goals of the season and freshman Devin Boyce scored his first high school goal.

“We’re getting players that are usually on the bench experience on the field,” Michel said. “But we should be getting some of (the starters) back soon.”

CBC is playing without midfielders Corey Nolte (torn anterior cruciate ligament), Connor Sendobry (concussion), Joe Corbett (back), Max Leach (illness) and defender Nicho Sorrentino (concussion). Michler said he hasn’t had so many injuries so early in his 41 years of coaching.

Whitfield coach Bill Daues thought the Warriors came out of their shell after the first half.

“There is a learning window we have here because of the youth we have on this team,” said Daues, whose team is the two-time defending Class 1 state champion. “The sooner we can close that, especially from the intensity standpoint, the better we’ll be. And we picked it up in the second half. Some of those guys that started playing tentative, in the second half they came out and started playing.

“They must look at games like this as opportunities, and they didn’t do that in the first half,” Daues added. “They looked at it as a severe challenge that we can’t overcome. And when they get that through their mind, that mental aspect means so much.”

Whitfield was playing with heavy hearts. Sophomore forward Jon Esrock, who was expected to be a starter, hasn’t been with the teams since a car accident on August 26 left him hospitalized last week. He has since been released from the hospital, but Esrock’s mother, Janet, died this week from injuries sustained in the accident. She was a teacher and girl’s field hockey coach at Whitfield.

“We have so many sophomores, and it’s tough losing a classmate who would have been a regular player this season,” Daues said.

“So they feel bad for him. Many of them had his mother as a teacher, so their feeling very bad for the family. Everybody grieves differently, so you really don’t know how much it affects some players versus other players.”