Tam Soccer Stifles Star, Tops Panthers

Tam High's soccer team put a big stamp on its early season success with a 3-2 win Tuesday over the Santa Rosa Panthers, the squad that knocked the Hawks out of the North Coast Section tournament a year ago.

The victory gave Tam coach Dustin Nygaard a bit of revenge over Panther coach Jon Schwan, his closest friend dating back to elementary school and the best man at his wedding two years ago.

"It's not quite an NCS game, but we'll take it," Nygaard said after the game, which pushed the Hawks to 3-0 on the season after last week's wins over Petaluma and El Molino. "Jon and I have always had a friendly competitive thing going between us, so it was nice to get this win."

While the revenge in toppling the 2009 North Coast Section runner-up was nice, the way the Hawks did so was even more important. Although they gave up two first half goals on free kicks to Diego Leon, they were able to otherwise stifle the Panthers' offense, particularly reigning North Bay Player of the Year John McFarlin. Nygaard specifically praised center backs Sean Wilkinson and James Gilmore, as well as Imran Nana and Spenser LaBay for their defensive efforts.

"We were extremely good defensively today," Nygaard said. "We did a really nice job in the middle of clogging it up and not giving them much room to make plays."

Leon put the Panthers on the board early, but the Hawks answered back in the 10th minute when Tesfaye Paine took a long ball from LaBay and capitalized on the goalie's mistake to knock it in from just outside the 18-yard box.

Fifteen minutes later, Ludo Nengo showed pure class in taking a pass from Paine in the middle of the field, holding off an aggressive defender and striking the ball into the right corner of the net.

Despite a second free kick goal from Leon that tied it up, Tam moved the ball very well throughout the first half, dominating the run of play, particularly down the left side behind Julien Melendez and left back Lucas Janetos, who delivered an excellent ball into space in the 35th minute that Melendez sent into the back of the net.

The Hawks continued to get the best of ther Panthers in the second half, creating a slew of chances but no goals. Nengo, Paine and Melendez seemed to be in the middle of most of those chances. Paine delivered a scorching corner kick that Melendez nearly headed in, and Paine later intercepted a goal kick with tons of space around him but sent the shot high over the crossbar.

"We did a really nice job not only of keeping the ball in our possession, but possessing it with a purpose," Nygaard said. "We created a lot of good opportunities."

Tam kicks off the Bay City Invitational Friday with a game against Grant Union High from Sacramento.