By RYAN WALKER
The Norwell Knights took a 1-0 victory over the Heritage Patriots off of the back of goaltender Noah Fromm Thursday night.
A brisk, cool night for boys soccer between two non-conference teams (Norwell 3-8-1 and Heritage 5-5-2) took place at Norwell High School. With the season coming to a close in the coming weeks, every night counts to improve before the sectional tournament.
The Knights, under head coach Jamie Feldheiser, played exactly how he’s wanted them to all season.
“I was just proud of how we put a lot of guys in the rotation today and they all kind of stepped up,” he said. “There wasn’t any kind of weak link.”
The first half was a stalemate, 0-0. The shots on goal were six to one in favor of the Patriots, but Norwell had the better opportunities to score.
One of them was a cross-kick high in the air over to sophomore Kyler Morris, who had a wide-open path in front of the goalie. He tapped a header towards the goal, but the ball harmlessly floated over the net.
Another try came from junior Austin DeLeon, the team’s leader in goals with 11, who took a deep kick, forcing Heritage’s keeper Bar Sit to dive for the ball. It rolled passed the net slightly to the right without risk of going in.
In the second half, Heritage continued the pressure, firing shots toward goaltender Noah Fromm, who made each save.
Norwell, though, still produced the best chances.
DeLeon took another deep shot that deflected off of Sit, giving another opportunity for Morris, but his shot was stopped. Within a minute later, the Knights Logan Renninger found himself crashing towards the net and having his low shot stuffed as well.
Another chance had Sit spinning around after a save, losing sight of the ball for a moment, and stopping another shot at the last second.
“Obviously, we want them to go slightly under the bar or slightly inside the bar to go in,” Feldheiser jokingly said about their close chances. “But we’re at least doing those intangibles that we weren’t doing early in the year, such as following on the rebounds and continuing to put that pressure on them.”
Feldheiser admitted that he was both encouraged and a little frustrated the shots weren’t going in but said the more they do it, the better off they will be as they come closer to the tournament.
The missed opportunities would end at the 13:16 mark off of a DeLeon pass to Kyler Morris, who had an open lane towards the net to break the tie.
With 13 minutes remaining, the Patriots turned up the intensity to try and even the score. But the combination of the Norwell defense and Fromm had time running out with 1-0 still written on the scoreboard.
“Defensively, we were really organized and communicated a little bit better where we didn’t chase the ball,” Feldheiser said. “Our midfielders are starting to mark better in the middle and take away a lot of those shots.”
As for his goalie Fromm, he earned a shutout with 11 saves on the night.
“We can always count on Noah to make the saves that he needs to,” he added. “He’s also capable of a lot of quick reaction saves. He’s done it in penalty shootouts and even here tonight.”
Norwell moves their record now to 4-8-1 with three games left, two in the conference and one non-conference. Their next will be on the road to Columbia City at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept 24.
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