Tindi’s goal, Jones’ shutout help Rochester beat Warriors in opener

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Taya Tindi

Taya Tindi scored with 34:15 left to give the Rochester boys soccer team a 1-0 win over visiting North Miami in their season opener at the Brent Blacketor Memorial Sports Complex Saturday.

Evan Maroney had the assist, dribbling down the middle of the pitch and dropping a pass off to Tindi weaving behind him. Tindi then fired a shot to the left of the goalkeeper.

Freshman goalkeeper Kevin Jones had six saves for the shutout in his high school debut.

“He’s a freshman starting his first game, so he has zero varsity experience,” Rochester coach Trevor Brown said. “You know, he’s played for a long time growing up. But it’s different stepping from middle school soccer to varsity. The shots are coming faster with a lot more pace on them. A lot more strength. He did a great job. He’s going to continue just to get better. I was really happy with how he played.”

With Jones in net, that means that Elliott Miller moves from keeper to defense for his senior season. Other defenders included senior Camdyn Furnivall, junior Josh DeSonia, sophomore Eli Wilson and freshman Rowan Heinzmann.

DeSonia is the only one who is back from last year’s back line.

“It was great,” Brown said when asked about his team’s defensive discipline in not letting North Miami attackers get behind them. “We didn’t allow any breakaways. We really cut out every through ball. The shots they had, a couple times we didn’t get marked up in the box on crosses, but I thought we did a great job of stepping and dropping as a unit. They looked pretty organized. We’ll keep working. … I would say all of our defenders did great.”

Focal points of the North Miami attack included Brady Coppler, Grant Hovermale, Tyler Tacheny and Jace Hall.

“We had good quality and more than ample opportunities,” North Miami coach Adam Wolfe said. “We just did not capitalize on those opportunities. Too much trying to play with the ball rather than finishing through the ball.”

The game marked the first game in the return of Brown as coach. Brown also coached Rochester from its inception as a varsity program in 2006 through 2020. He replaced Eric Backus, who is now the Rochester girls coach.

After the game, the team did its familiar African war chant, a tradition after a victory during the first Brown era as well.

“It’s fun,” Brown said. “It’s nice to be back. I have a son that’s going to be coming up. This is a fun group to coach. A lot of nice kids on this team. They’re working hard. I demand a lot from them, but we’re having a good time.”

The team’s seniors include Furnivall, Isaac Heishman, Jackson Frounfelter and Miller.

Last year, seniors scored 32 of the team’s 42 goals, including 22 from Spencer Backus. Brown was asked about who will be tasked with scoring on this team.

“We only return five goals from last season, so all but five goals graduated,” Brown said. “But I think you saw today Drew Lawson had a couple good shots on goal, Maroney generates some attack, and Taya scored the goal today. It’s just a thing where they’re in a new system and a new coach. It will take a little bit. It takes a little longer to get the offense clicking. We’ve been focused mostly on making sure our defense is sound. In a couple weeks, the goals will start going in. I’m not too worried about it.”

Wolfe was asked to describe what happened defensively on Tindi’s goal.

“From our standpoint, our back four are pretty inexperienced together, and we honestly got lost in the shuffle of the ball being played into the center, and we had a couple of guys collapse, which left that wide open gap for that easy shot the keeper couldn’t get to,” Wolfe said. “We just had miscommunication back there.”