27-Color
Pikes Peak Courier View 27
August 28, 2013
n Panthers ready to kick the ball around
6-2
Woodland Park looking for goals, victories this fall By Danny Summers
Dsummers@ourcoloradonews.com With just three combined victories the last two seasons, the Woodland Park High School boys’ soccer team has a lot of room for improvement. And while Panthers players and coaches aren’t talking state championship, they do believe that a playoff berth could be an attainable goal. “At this point it’s hard to say,” said Bryan Cosgriff, Woodland Park senior goalkeeper. “I feel that this year we have a much stronger team. We’re a lot closer this year. We’ll be able to work much better together. We’ll see how the season progresses.” The Panthers’ Achilles heel last season was their inability to score on a consistent basis. They had just 79 shots on goal and scored just six goals by six different players, while posting a 1-13-1 record. The victory was a forfeit win over Wasson, which closed its doors last spring. “Our play in the season will be determined by our practices now and how we grow as a team,” said junior midfielder Dakota Herman, who scored a goal in 2012. Herman, senior Chase Fish and sophomores Cody Stroup and Nick McMorris will be counted on to provide offensive opportunities. “Really everyone on top. If we can work together as a team we’ll gain more confidence in everything we do,” Fish said. Woodland Park coach Andrew Pappadakis was pleased with the style of soccer his club played. “Last year we would play very good soccer for about 10 minutes,” Pappadakis said. “We’d be pretty solid the rest of the game. But we just couldn’t finish on offense, and too many times we let the other team get by us.” Woodland Park allowed 74 goals, a respectable average of about five per game. Pappadakis is proud of this group. He knows his team will be competitive in every game. Whether they score enough goals to win is another story. “We will make playoffs a goal to shoot for this season,” he said. “I expect to score. I expect we will play a lot of close games.” Among the other players who are expected to see time this year are seniors Josh Longoria, Austin Weatherford, Brennan Arndt, Abraham Adair, Austin Hunt
The Woodland Park boys soccer team should be much improved this season. Leading the way for the Panthers are: (from front to back) Bryan Cosgriff, Cody Stroup, Chase Fish and Dakota Herman. Photo by Danny Summers and Brian Crandell, juniors Ben Witt and Caleb King and sophomores Erik Gonzales, Dalton LaFever and Nate Nunes. The Panthers open their season Friday
at Conifer. Their home opener is set for Sept. 7 against Manitou Springs in a noon start on the school’s football field. Woodland Park plays in the Class 4A
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