‘They can do this stuff:’ Backus encouraged by second half despite Zebra home loss to Trinity Greenlawn

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The Trinity Greenlawn boys soccer team scored five goals in a 16-minute span in the first half and went on to beat host Rochester 5-0 at the Brent Blacketor Memorial Sports Complex Saturday.

Graham Landau, Jack Cressy, Nathan Palmer, Jaocoby Sanchez and Thomas Wilson scored for Trinity Greenlawn, who is 4-2 but was coming off a 5-0 loss to Mishawaka Marian Thursday.

Rochester had two shots on goal, both by Carlos Plascencia. Elliot Miller stopped nine of the 14 shots he saw in net, and Miller and the defense kept a clean sheet in the second half.

Coach Eric Backus said the Zebras got impatient during the key first-half stretch. He said they started diving in on balls defensively instead of just holding their position.

“I just told the boys at half, I’m like, ‘We’ve got to stop letting the little mistakes cost us goals, and if we can clean that up, we’re a pretty good team,’” Backus said. “We held a really good Trinity team to no goals in the second half, and we had a couple opportunities where we were on the attack. I just hope they can get it in their heads that they can do this stuff.”

Rochester lists five freshmen and three sophomores on its roster.

“Right now, it’s just a confidence level,” Backus said. “We have players who have played years and years and years and years that know that they’re confident. You can see it. You can tell. And we’ve got a lot of young kids that I think need to just gain that confidence and just know you can go take a shot on a varsity level. Take a shot and maybe something good will happen.”

Rochester lost their third straight game and dropped to 1-4-1. They lost games to LaVille, Lakeland Christian and Trinity Greenlawn this week by a combined score of 11-1.

“I would love to play LaVille again because we just didn’t play well against them,” Rochester coach Eric Backus said. “I think we’re an even team with LaVille.” 

An impact transfer is junior Jackson Robbins. Listed at 5-4, he is a striker and midfielder who moved in from Caston.

“Jackson Robbins is definitely a good help,” Backus said. “He works hard in the midfield. That’s definitely been helping out Carlos. It gives me the option to move Kaison (Williams) from the midfield and out wide as another little passing threat out wide.”