WHITEHALL — Shelby struggled to maintain an offensive push Monday
in its West Michigan Conference opener against Whitehall, dropping the
contest 2-0.
Tigers' coach Cristian Arellano said his team was
playing pretty well offensively in the first half but that their psyche
took a hit when the Vikings got on the board.
"Once their first goal came down, it was a big blow," Arellano said. "They're still young
kids, so that mentality (when we get scored on) of, 'Oh, we're done,' is right there. We've still
got to work with
them on that. The passing is getting better, and
I see it. We just have to take our chances."
The Tigers have
also been handicapped offensively by an ankle injury to striker
Christian Llanas, the team's top scorer. Arellano said Llanas was hurt
in a preseason scrimmage and is still working his way back. (Llanas may
have felt better Tuesday, scoring four goals in a 4-3 win over Benzie
Central.)
Whitehall's Carter Burrous tries to get the ball past Shelby's Caleb Huls during Monday's game at Whitehall. The Vikings won, 2-0.
On the defensive side, though, Shelby got good play
from keeper Oliver Gorton, who made 17 saves. The second goal of the
game was a blistering shot from 25 or so yards away by the Vikings'
Samuel Chona, and there was almost nothing Gorton could have done. He
still managed to get a fingertip on it before it went in.
"He's one heck of a keeper," Arellano said. "For being a
sophomore. he's one of the best keepers that
I've seen, and that's including when I played. It's just great to have somebody that good at the back who can help us out."
The
game was the first of a back-to-back-to-back for Shelby, which faced
Benzie Tuesday and then returned to WMC play against Manistee Wednesday.
Arellano said with his young roster, the coaches have been intentional
about trying to build mental resilience, an even tougher task with so
much game action in a short period of time.
"I told
them, 'Just forget about this game. Take the positives
from this game,'" Arellano said. "The negativity, we'll work on that.
It's hard to go back to back, especially three games back to
back. We've just got to talk to them, especially when we
can't practice. We've just got to talk to them and make sure we can get
it out of their heads."
