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Bulldogs stay perfect in SPC

By Steve Winzenread | Independent Tribune

Published: October 6, 2009

CONCORD — The Jay M. Robinson soccer team continued its victory march through the South Piedmont 3A Conference on Tuesday night, shutting out Hickory Ridge 4-0.
"Starting the game we had about five of our starters on the bench," said Robinson coach Michael Hoke. "The second -stringers came in and hustled and did really well.
"That was a nice surprise. They showed they could make up the ground if someone was out. That was great to see."
Ben Shamanis and Zach Page (penalty kick) scored in the first half for a 2-0 Bulldogs' lead.
Uriel Rebollar and Paul Cipriani added goals in the second half, each assisted by Michael Dalton.
"We played through the whole game and didn't really relax at all," Hoke said. "I thought the defense did a great job. It's not very often that we've got shutouts this year, so it was nice to see that."
Kushal Patel was in goal for the shutout.
"He's usually our sweeper," Hoke said. "He was subbing for us tonight. He did a good job."
Hickory Ridge keeper Drew Andreotti made some excellent saves, twice — with leaping deflections — keeping Shamanis from adding to his goal tally in the first half.
Midway through the SPC season, Robinson (11-2-1 overall) is 7-0 as the Bulldogs go for a second consecutive league title. Robinson won the MECA 4A crown last year.
One of the objectives for the Bulldogs is to challenge themselves even as they keep rolling through the SPC unscathed.
"That's been something we've been talking about all season," Hoke said. "We had some games early in the year against 4A teams and we got beat. I told them we've got to challenge ourselves on the soccer field.
"We've talked about how we can do that. We've put together some special game scoring that puts emphasis on what we want to get better at. I'm trying to put as much competition into practice as we can.
"We don't want to let down. We want to finish off the conference season strong. We don't want to walk out for any of these next few games thinking, 'This is our game, we don't have to try.' We want to keep the intensity up and go into the playoffs strong and confident. Our goal is to get into the playoffs and go deep."
In the junior varsity match, Robinson and Hickory Ridge tied 2-2.
Chris Holden and Baylor Koch scored goals for Robinson. Taylor Sloan and Adrian Ike scored Hickory Ridge's goals.