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Saving grace
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Howland’s Matt Doan (2) kicks the ball away from Canfield’s Nick Phillips (15) during their scoreless match on Tuesday in Howland.
By Brandon Judeh
Howland
Sometimes a scoreless tie just doesn’t do justice to the performances in a soccer match.
The Canfield and Howland High boys teams played to a 0-0 tie Tuesday night, but the duel between Cardinals goalkeeper Jeff Joseph and the Tigers’ Kurt Kuszmaul was one to remember.
Joseph finished with 11 saves and at least half were spectacular, game-saving stops.
“It always gives me a lot of confidence whenever I can make a big save or two,” Joseph said. “Sometimes in big games I get a little nervous, but once I make a couple of saves that kind of all goes away.”
Making Joseph’s great play even more impressive is the fact that he made the switch from being a field player to a goalie before the season started.
“I actually played goalie a little bit when I was younger, but I think some of it is instinct and some of it is luck,” Joseph said. “I have to give all the credit to my goalkeeper coach Mike Thomas. He’s one of the best. He has really helped me with a lot.”
Canfield head coach Phil Simone says that the main reason Joseph was converted was out of desperation.
“We actually didn’t have any goalkeepers coming into this season, so we converted Jeff to goalie and he has stepped up big time,” Simone said.
Not to be outdone was Kuszmaul, who finished with 10 saves and also made several key stops, including a big tip save in the 28th minute of the second half.
“I have to give all the credit to my defenders, they did a great job of containing their offense, unfortunately we couldn’t get one in the net,” Kuszmaul said. “I don’t really like ties in soccer, but at least it was a shutout”
Howland (3-1-3) had several opportunities to break through in the first half, but Joseph made one spectacular save after another to keep the game scoreless.
In the 24th minute of the first half, the Tigers rocketed a shot that looked sure to meet the net, but Joseph was able to tip the ball out of bounds.
Kuszmaul matched Joseph save for save and early in the second half with the Cardinals (3-3-2) on a 3-2 break, he came up with an exciting save to preserve the tie.
“Both sides did a great job on defense,” Howland head coach George Stevens said. “It was a really well-played game for both teams.
“A lot of people would think that a 0-0 game would be boring, but this was a very exciting, well played game, both teams had plenty of opportunities, but both defenses did their job.”
They will meet again later in Canfield. Stevens said he and his players will be looking forward to it.
“We want to slow our pace down a bit and try to control the ball so that we aren’t running at such a break-neck speed,” he said. “We will continue to work on that and see what happens when we go down to their place later this season.”