8 saves vs. Holy Angels
(photo by Jim Lindquist)
Farmington (3-0-1) and Holy Angels (3-0) entered Tuesday night's showdown at the StarDome as two of three unbeaten teams remaining in Missota Conference play.
But after their dominating 6-0 win over the Tigers the undefeated Stars own sole possession of first place in the league standings. Shakopee (3-0-1) sits in second with Northfield (4-1) and Farmington following close behind.
Tiger coach Julian Buss said part of the problem for his team was the absence of three midfielders--Blake Smith, Robin DeCastro and Urive Omana--who were out with injuries. The Tigers coach added, however, he didn't want to take anything away from the winning team.
"Holy Angels has a talented, strong squad this year," he said. "I wouldn't be surprised to see them finish with a Missota Conference title."
Buss also said the Stars used a formation for which his team did not have an immediate answer.
"They ran a formation (4-3-3) that unfortunately, does not match up well with the formation (3-5-2) we play," he said. "We were too slow in the first half to make adjustments.
"In the second half we moved our sweeper (Sam Leske) up try to generate some offense but that only caused more of a hole in our defense."
The Stars led 2-0 at halftime but then scored twice in the first 10 minutes of the second half to put the game away.
The Tiger defense and keeper Chad Stivers (8 saves) went into the game allowing just 1.5 goals per game.
"We battled throughout the game," Buss said. "Our boys did not lack excitement and energy going into this game.
"We will look to finish strong and keep this loss as the only glitch in an otherwise strong conference showing"
The Tigers (7-4-2) take a break from league play with a non-conference game at Lakeville South on Thursday. Next week they close out their conference campaign with games against Chaska and New Prague.
