At a glance: O-M extends Stephens' coaching career
Andrew Legare
With their head coach on the sidelines for his final home game, the Odessa-Montour boys soccer team came up with its most impressive performance of the season Wednesday at Odessa's Charles Martin Field.
The sixth-seeded Indians scored four goals in each half for an 8-0 victory over 11th-seeded Spencer-Van Etten/Candor (6-8) in a Section 4 Class C Tournament first-round game. Taylor Grover had a hat trick for O-M (9-7), with all three goals coming in the first half.
Stephens 'thrilled'
Dirk Stephens is retiring as Odessa-Montour's head coach following 16 varsity seasons. His players' effort Wednesday left a smile on his face.
"I'm thrilled," said Stephens, who is the owner of the H.L. Stephens chain of furniture stores. "I told the guys, if I had to script a way to go out at home, this would be it."
The teams split two regular-season games, including a 7-2 victory by S-VE/Candor two weeks ago. O-M took the first meeting, 1-0, in overtime.
"We went over and we played terrible over there," Stephens said. "We came back here and sometimes you get chances to rectify things and that's what they did."
Quick strikes
The Indians dominated the first half on the scoreboard and in terms of play. They were more aggressive on balls in the air, had the edge on 50/50 balls on the ground and were by far the sharper passing team.
O-M's victory began with a pretty goal just over four minutes into play off a header from Curtis Harris that was set up by a perfect corner kick from Preston Harris to the far side of the goal mouth.
Grover scored on a turnaround blast off a turnover with 21:05 left in the half, added his second goal on a deflection of a Curtis Harris header off a corner kick, then made it 4-0 with a quick strike to the near side of the net with 8:35 to go in the first half.
"Today was just a phenomenal effort all the way across the board," Stephens said. "We got a lot of extra scoring from Taylor. We changed our lineup a little bit. He was our sweeper and we were able to put him into a forward position so him and Curtis can give us more scoring there."
PKs help in second half
Spencer-Van Etten/Candor was called for two fouls in the penalty area less than two minutes apart in the second half. Johnny Niedermaier and DeShawn Johnson converted the penalty kicks for a 6-0 lead with 31:18 left. Brett Walters and Phoenix Parmenter rounded out the scoring.
Devon Roth, Preston Harris and Johnson each had two assists for the Indians. Trey McCarty made six saves for the shutout.
Indians sharp on set pieces
O-M ended up with three goals off corner kicks and two more on the penalty kicks. Stephens said they work on set pieces every practice and had struggled in that area all season. That changed Wednesday, when he said something clicked and the team's corner kicks were right on the money.
The Indians ended up with 11 corner kicks to go with their 17-6 edge in shots.
A joy to coach
Stephens said beyond the record, this year's group of players are among those who have made his time coaching the program enjoyable.
"Every group comes with a different dynamic," Stephens said. "The last few years no matter how it ended up – we always seemed to make sectionals – but no matter how we made out, they were some of the nicest kids, some of the nicest people you're ever going to meet. They're good kids and the character showed up tonight."
Stephens is hopeful his son Dan will coach the varsity next season after coaching the modified this year.
Odessa-Montour will take on Interscholastic Athletic Conference Large School champion Lansing (14-2) in a quarterfinal at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Ithaca College's Higgins Stadium. Lansing is seeded third.
"Any time you're going to play Lansing, you're going to play one of the top teams in the state," Stephens said. "We played them a little bit in a scrimmage. We didn't have things figured out. I think we could give them a good game. They're tough. They're a good team."
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