Salem’s blue wave of goals continues in 5-2 win over Plymouth
Salem’s Chase Lieb shadows Plymouth’s Mariano Serapiglia during Thursday night’s match on the P-CEP North field.
Salem’s explosive soccer team has scored 11 goals in its last two games, none more jaw-dropping or softly-struck than junior Tyler Veresh’s net-finder off a free kick with 12 minutes and 5 seconds remaining in the first half.
Following a Plymouth foul 16 yards from the net, Rock senior Grant Fletcher touched the ensuing free kick to Veresh, who was standing eight yards from the goal.
Veresh proceeded to chip the slow rolling pass on a high arc just inside the right post and over Plymouth’s leaping keeper Cam Schlaud to expand his team’s lead to 4-1 in a match Salem would go on to win, 5-2.
The slick play was the culmination of several repetitions at practice, right?
100% spontaneous
“Not at all,” Veresh confirmed. “We’ve never worked on that. I wasn’t expecting it to come to me, and if it did, my first thought was to cross it into the box. Instead, I saw an opening and hit it just right over the goalie’s arms.”
(To check out a video of Tyler Veresh’s goal, click here.)
The goal was Veresh’s second of the game. With 25:25 left in the first half, he broke through the Wildcats’ back wall and deposited a ground-hugger inside the left post.
Early signs pointed toward a big night for Plymouth, which seized a 1-0 lead 33 seconds into the contest when junior Henry Maitland launched a sizzling header past Salem keeper Peter Demetter.
Salem countered six minutes later to deadlock the game at 1-1 on Sachiin Kumar’s well-struck shot from 15 yards out. Four minutes before his goal, Kumar drilled a shot off the cross-bar.
No looking back
The Rocks grabbed the lead for good, 2-1, on Veresh’s first goal.
Salem continued its momentum when the hard-charging Mohamad Ali Bakkar nudged home a rebound off a shot from Kumar 15:48 before halftime to make it 3-1.
The Rocks seemed to put a padlock on the victory three minutes later on Veresh’s second goal.
The Wildcats kept scrapping, though, and their aggressive play paid off when a player was fouled in the box. Alex Vega then ripped home the ensuing penalty kick with 7:25 to go in the opening half to cut his team’s deficit in half, 4-2.
Salem ‘D’ excels over final 40
Anchored by Demetter, Salem’s defense locked down the ‘Cats over the final 40 minutes while the Rocks’ offense added the final goal of the game from Ali Bakkar with 2:59 left.
Demetter capped his stellar effort with a diving save at the 2:15 mark.
Both teams entered the P-CEP rivalry game after posting impressive victories. Salem thumped Novi, 6-0, on Tuesday, while Plymouth blanked Brighton, 1-0, on Monday.
The game was the first featuring two P-CEP teams on the recently-opened P-CEP North stadium.
Ed Wright can be reached at 734-664-4657 or edwright@socialhousenews.com.
