Brooke Bruins Roll Past John Marshall
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MOUNDSVILLE -- Twenty-seven years ago Josh Strope was a part of Weir's 1996 OVAC Boys' Soccer Tournament Championship team coached by Joe Pepe.
On Tuesday evening, the two took the field together once again, but this time as opposing head coaches.
Pepe's Brooke Bruins got off to a fast start and rolled to a 10-2 victory over Strope's John Marshall Monarchs at Monarch Stadium.
"We're really happy with this start to the season," Pepe said. "We got all of the kids in and that's what we wanted to do. Take nothing away from John Marshall. They have a young team but they are going to be a good team. They have a good coach. Josh is in his first year but he will be just fine. I told him if he needs anything at all to give me a call. That's what I'm here for and if I can pass on something that he can learn from, I'll be happy."
After pocketing a win in his coaching debut on Saturday, Strope was happy to receive some advice from his mentor following his first setback.
"You never want to root against (Pepe)," Strope said with a smile. "I've known Coach Pepe since I was 5 or 6 years old and he's kind of a mentor for me. Even after the game he gave me an idea of something we used to do at Weir to teach the kids and try to help out. So even now he's someone I can lean on and hopefully we can keep having these battles. I just hope next time we're on the other side of the outcome."
The Bruins were eager to get the season started and they stormed out of the gate with seven straight goals to take complete control early.
Senior Ben Ferguson got the ball rolling at 38:06 with the game's first netter on an assist from Chase Hile.
Moments later, the two connected again with Hile securing the goal on a helper from Ferguson.
Ferguson continued his strong season opener with three more goals over the next 20 minutes of play and he finished the contest with four goals and an assist.
Christian Packer and Cooper Byers also supplied goals in the Bruins' 7-0 outburst to begin the contest.
"We were chomping at the bit," Pepe said. "Everybody else was starting to play last Wednesday and our girls' team got two games in and are 2-0 and our guys were scratching and asking 'when are we going to play?' and I'm very proud of all of them for coming out with a strong performance Tuesday."
John Marshall senior Brayden Huntsman put the Monarchs on the scoreboard at 11:38 as he took a pass from Quinton West and beat the keeper.
Hile responded twice in the final 3 minutes of the first half as he delivered a pair of goals to create a 9-1 Brooke cushion at halftime.
After a quick goal in the first 30 seconds of the second half by Brooke's Devin Cipoletti, the Monarchs held the Bruins scoreless the rest of the game and Huntsman netted his second goal of the contest for JM on an assist from Ethan Corvino.
"We challenged them in the second half but with the mercy rule now in West Virginia we didn't want the game to end prematurely," Strope said. "I wanted them to keep battling and I was very proud of how things went in the second half and how they kept their heads up and kept going. We are a young team and this is a learning process so I thought that was another step in the right direction."
Packer and Cipoletti each dished out a pair of assists in the victory, while Jeg Hilt, Nick Sagan, Dylan Black and Pete Fodor each recorded an assist for the Bruins, who seemed to be in midseason form with well-executed ball movement.
"We have seven seniors and the majority of them started all the way through high school," Pepe said. "We have a good nucleus around them, too. We work on ball movement a lot and I thought it was very good for the first game. I hope we can keep up that intensity as we go on through the season. It's also our keeper's first year of playing keeper and he did a very good job out there."
Chance Brozstek made seven saves for Brooke, while Jude Thomas collected 12 saves for the Monarchs.
"We left him hanging out to dry a few times," Strope said of Thomas. "He's a senior leader and we expect him to play well like he did Tuesday, but we have to do better in front of him."
Brooke 10, John Marshall 2
B -- Goals: Ferguson 4, Hile 3, Packer 1, Cipoletti 1, Byers 1. Assists: Ferguson 1, Hile 1, Packer 2, Cipoletti 2, Hilt 1, Sagan 1, Black 1, Fodor 1. Saves: Brozstek 7.
J --- Goals: Huntsman 2. Assists: West 1, Corvino 1. Saves: Thomas 12.