GA tops PW, although McKinney is not thrilled
By DENNIS C. WAY
21st Century Media
WHITEMARSH->>Germantown Academy rookie head coach Billy McKinney could only smile an embarrassed smile.
Sure, his Patriots had just won their second game in three starts, a 7-4 verdict over host Plymouth Whitemarsh, and all the coach could talk about was their mistakes.
“I’m going to have to build them back up again,” said McKinney after two goals apiece by James Thatcher and Brad Palmer led the visitors to the non-league win, which was immediately followed by MKinney tearing into his team for the mistakes they made. “This is a good, young team, with eight seniors and the rest a mixture of mostly sophomores and freshmen, and they’re going to be pretty good in the next couple of years.
“But today they made too many mistakes.”
Those mistakes included one regular being penalized for using an illegal stick, while others were out of position defensively.
McKinney was not shy about reminding them of their shortcomings, but then had to smile when he considered these were mistakes made by players who have two and three years to correct them.
The Patriots jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one quarter on goals by Thatcher and Andrew Towne, then increased that league to 5-1 by halftime.
The Colonials managed a single goal, by Alex Savarese, but did little to impress their coach, Bryan Gregg, who was hoping for a little more from his team, even though the season is not yet a week old.
“I figured (GA) would be pretty good,” Gregg said. “My frustration comes from our inability to put a complete game together. We’re just not doing the things we need to do to win.”
Gregg’s mood wouldn’t improve as the visitors would stretch their lead to 6-1 early in the third quarter before the Colonials would score three of the contest’s final four goals.
Still, McKinney was only too quick to jump on his team’s shortcomings in a postgame gathering that was spirited, although not mean spirited.
“The tough part for me is that we made so many mistakes that we shouldn’t still be making,” McKinney said. “There was just an overall lack of execution which was really frustrating from a coaching standpoint.
“But the season is young, and we have time to improve.”
PW’s Gregg was not as optimistic.
“We’re going to have to get better pretty quickly,” Gregg said. “This is a veteran group, but they’re not playing like one right now.”
LAX FACTS: Along with Thatcher’s two goals were two assists, while Zander Foglia had a goal and an assist. … PW got second-half goals from Will Mailey, Mike Iannarelli and Kenny Diamond. … Gunnar Bogorowski netted a single goal for the Patriots.
