Morgan boys soccer team looking for a few more players

Published 8:49 pm Wednesday, February 22, 2017

The undefeated Morgan Academy boys’ soccer team is looking for additional players, just so they’ll have enough to take the field for upcoming road games.

The Senators (2-0) are down to 10 players after injuries to two of the 12 players on the roster. Morgan plays 11 on 11, so either the Senators find someone else to step in, or they’ll be forced to play a man short for their next two games.

“I’ve got a few guys who will play in an emergency situation for me, like for home games or if it was a nearby away game,” said Morgan coach Jay Minter. “We’ve got three more longer road trips, like two hours away and two of them back-to-back.”

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Minter said he’d like to have more than one more player. Preferably, he’d like to be able to rest a couple of his guys during games instead of every player having to be on the field the whole game.

He said he’s got one player who may be able to help the team with its next couple of road games, but if anyone else gets injured, the team would be shorthanded again.

Even with the 10 he has on the team, three of the players are seventh graders and one is an eighth grader, so the team was already challenged by its youth. Now, depth is the biggest problem.

“You adjust your formation and you hope for the best,” Minter said. “Ten good players can beat 11 average players, but when you have players who physically aren’t mature as the older players and you don’t have the skills and experience… I don’t proclaim to have an answer. I have some guesses we are going to try and see if one of those is the answer. You look for chances and make sure you play defense and it limits your offensive potential.”

Morgan opened the season with two 1-0 wins over Kingwood and Fort Dale.

Minter said he isn’t expecting much from any player who joins the team now. He’s not asking for anyone with a soccer background. All he wants is someone who will step in and play hard.

“You’re helping your classmates and schoolmates because you are recognizing you have friends and classmates that have put in a lot of effort and you don’t want to see their effort go down as wasted effort,” Minter said.

The Senators play at Coosa Valley on Thursday and at Lee-Scott on Friday.