TEA – The Aberdeen Central boys know what’s at stake this week, taking on two statewide powers on the road in three days. The Golden Eagles got off to a solid start with a 2-0 victory over Tea Area Tuesday night.
“We talked about it right after last week,” said Central coach Lance Mohr, “just viewing this as kind of a tournament week for us. … Going on the road against two really good teams. We wanted a kind of trial run at it.”
Mohr said the Golden Eagles, who play at Sioux Falls Lincoln on Thursday, had chances to score during a scoreless first half against Tea Area before cashing in during the final 40 minutes.
Lincoln Stone found Tyler Bain on a throw in for the first goal, before Linus Johnson beat the defense for a left-footed goal in the right corner of the net.
Meanwhile, the Central defense was up to the challenge in helping to record the team’s seventh shutout of the season.
“Our back line, hats off to them, they did a great job of winning a lot of the flighted balls, a lot of the stuff that was coming into the back line,” Mohr said, “and we knew coming in that was going to be the case tonight. They met that challenge.”
Mohr was happy with how the Golden Eagles showed up focused and ready to compete.
“I’m really, really pleased with the way we approached the game from minute one when we got off the bus,” Mohr said.
Mohr credited three players in particular: Gus Bjerknes, Bryson Burgard, and Derek Arunasalam.
“The three guys in the midfield are a little bit of unsung heroes in the sense that they might not fill a statline, but those guys work tirelessly for 80 minutes,” Mohr said.
He said the trio plays a key role in what the Golden Eagles are accomplishing on the pitch this season.
“Those three together are really, really fantastic players and collectively they win a ton of balls and keep possession for us and get it to the guys who need to create it,” Mohr said. “They’ve just gotten better and better and better as the season has gone on and they demonstrated that tonight. They won the midfield for us and that’s just huge.”
Central, 9-1 on the season, now will gear up to take on Lincoln. The Patriots have also lost just one game so far this year.
