East Ridge's soccer team used an offensive barrage to get by District 6-A/AA foe Red Bank on Tuesday at Camp Jordan Park.
The Pioneers unleashed numerous shots in the first half but put only one on the frame before making them count in the second half to take a 2-0 win and remain undefeated in the district.
It was apparent early that East Ridge (6-1, 5-0) was comfortable on its home field, and the offense was quickly in a rhythm with continual ball movement getting the Pioneers into a flow.
"We've been working on moving the ball and swinging it out wide, then bringing it in," coach Jeremy McIntyre said. "We were especially able to do that in the second half. We also really wanted to pressure the ball, and we felt like the more balls our forwards got to, the more chances we had to attack."
East Ridge used that pressure to maintain momentum and possession throughout the game, and after nine shots had missed the mark, Hunter Schobert broke through. Schobert put the first shot of the second half in the keeper's hands, but got the ball right back and blasted it into the left side.
"Every day, we've been working on finishing, and not sending balls way over," McIntyre said. "For the second half, we emphasized passing it to the feet - getting it to Rijad (Kazic), our big guy in the middle - then working wide and bringing it in. And look what happened."
Kazic helped facilitate the East Ridge offense, often getting the passes that brought the ball in from the edges and taking a few shots from the top of the box of his own. Late in the game, it looked like he had another opportunity to shoot, but he dumped it off to Adam Adem unmarked in the box. Adem put it away on the top shelf.
"I think we made two mistakes, and those mistakes resulted in two goals," Red Bank coach Wade Ilvento said. "That's a good team that seems to have had our number the last few years, and they did tonight. We didn't perform like we wanted to. We're a good team. We just didn't perform like we normally do."
The Lions got some nice runs out of Sandi Beganovic, who got one of the best looks with a sliding shot that was deflected away. Red Bank also had a couple of free kicks that nearly missed open teammates in the box - one went wide, and another trickled right to the East Ridge keeper. Will Davis was credited with three saves for the Lions.
Contact Idris Garcia at sports@timesfreepress.com.