Titan soccer defeats county rival Princeton
Sophomores Brody Riggs and Jonah Loveless and senior Vann Rose celebrate senior Blake Elpers’ goal to give the Titans a 2-1 lead over Princeton.
On Tuesday, Sept. 20, the Titan boys’ varsity soccer team (5-7) secured the victory over Princeton (7-7) with a final score of 2-1.
Getting the win against Princeton was exciting for the players and for the coaches.
“Getting a win against a local rival like Princeton is always a big deal,” head coach Joshua Higgins said. “Our boys fought hard the entire game, and it paid off.”
It was a scoreless first half for both the Titans and the Tigers.
Shortly after the start of the second half, senior Luke Appman found the back of the Tigers’ net with an assist from senior Vann Rose.
The Titans did not hold on to their lead for long, as Princeton made quick work to tie the score 1-1 after a goal from senior Cameraon Cundiff.
The stalemate lasted until the last minutes of the game until senior Blake Elpers scored the game winning goal with 7:35 left on the clock.
“I booty bumped the goalie out of the way while he was diving, and it rolled in between me and the goalie,” Elpers said. “I turned around and hit it with my left foot, and they kicked it straight into the goal.”
The past couple games the coaching staff decided to make some changes to the positions guys were playing. Appman, who played varsity goalkeeper his entire junior year and the start this school year, moved to center mid and Higgins brought up freshman Landon Elpers to play goalie.
“Putting Elpers in goal is something we are trying out for multiple reasons,” Higgins said. “Getting him some experience for next year is of great value to us. Also, Luke is one of our top players and having him on the field rather than in goal gives us a better chance to score and be aggressive and win more games.”
Since making the change, the Titans have gone 2-1. Rose agreed with the decision to change positions for Appman and Elpers.
“It’s been pretty important to switch Luke onto the field because he’s helped our offense become more dynamic, and now we have more depth on offense,” Rose said. “Just starting the year when Luke was at goal, we just didn’t have that many players who could surficially play on offense. But, now we got more on the attack and it works out well because Landon is a pretty natural goalie for his age; he has done really well. It’s just made our offense a lot stronger and has improved the offense overall.”
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