In a game that reminded everyone in green how frustrating “Murphy’s Law” can be, it seemed that everything that could go wrong did go wrong in the Vikings’ 2-1 (shootout) loss to Columbia-Rock Bridge. After a bit of a slow start the Vikings offense attempted to open up play by using the wings as much as possible for crosses and this adjustment paid off on a beautiful cross by Derek Rosbrugh and finish in the air by Matt Beckett. Beckett was issued a yellow card for a hard tackle, and later a second yellow for dissent, resulting in a soft-red (which means the team doesn’t have to play a man down because the red-card resulted from two yellows instead of a straight red card). Later in the match a Rock Bridge player was also issued a soft red as well. The Vikings held on to their lead for a good portion of the second half before giving up a goal late in the game on a hard low shot from inside the left corner of the penalty area. In penalty kicks Matt Medley, Morgan Holt, and Tim Griffin were successful but two other Vikings were not, and 4 Rock Bridge players were able to put their penalty kicks away. The Vikings played a hard fought and physical match against Columbia but were not able to come away with the result that they were looking for. The most important thing about this match though is that it was a hard fought one between two quality teams and it gave the Vikings their first taste of penalty kicks, two things that will help prepare them for the district tournament.
The Junior Varsity squad lost 2-0 to Rock Bridge, and stayed in the game for a long time thanks to fantastic goal keeping by Ben Haldiman. The Vikings’ best chance on goal was a well struck shot by Jordan Houseman, which the goalkeeper was barely able to push over the crossbar for a corner kick. The Parkview boys played well in this match on saturday against a strong Columbia team, but were clearly worn out in their second match of the day against Columbia-Hickman. The Vikings dropped this match badly and did not look like the same team that had played earlier in the day. Clearly missing a few key players and playing two games in the day caught up with the Junior Varsity who will play their last game of the season against Waynesville Monday night.
