Rockets dispatch rival Whip-Purs

Burlington Central's Zach Jochum (19) moves past Hampshire's Austin Buck during play Thursday in Burlington. The host Rockets won 4-0.
(Marina Makropoulos/Staff Photographer)

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BURLINGTON -- Coming off a season-opening loss to DeKalb, Burlington Central soccer coach Michael Gecan challenged his players to play better defense and score early on Thursday night against Big Northern Conference East Division rival Hampshire.

The message was heard loud and clear as the Rockets cruised to a 4-0 win in an early season showdown.

"Going into today, we had that first game underneath us," Gecan said. "We talked a little bit about everything and what we needed to do today and we ended up doing everything we wanted to."

Unfortunately for Hampshire, it didn't have a game under its belt. The Rockets (1-1, 1-0) took full advantage of a Whip-Purs defense playing their first game of the season and picked through the defense early, leading to its first goal only 6:29 into the game.

After a corner kick, a header missed off the post then the ball hit off a Hampshire defender and went into the net for an own goal to make it 1-0. Central's Ryan Warner was credited with the goal, his first of two on the night.

The Rockets continued their dominance throughout the first half and held an 8-1 shots-on-goal advantage at intermission.

"I told the guys to work hard to get the ball," Gecan said. "If you do that, you'll keep possession and get goals."

Hampshire threatened throughout the second half but couldn't come up with any goals thanks to a smothering Rockets defense.

"I'm really impressed with my sweeper Charlie Schmidlin," Gecan said. "He did a great job communicating and our two defenders (Paul Jerger and Zach Jochum) are sophomores and did a great job against some older forwards and I'm impressed."

The Whips had arguably their best scoring chance with 27 minutes left in the second half but freshman Jason Bishop's kick went just over the crossbar. A few minutes later, Hampshire junior Geza Kogler broke free from the Rockets' defense but his shot was stopped by goalkeeper Kyle DeRaedt. The senior had seven saves on the night to help keep the shutout intact.

"We are young both in age and experience," said first-year Whips coach John Gosling. "We adjusted our offense midway through the first half and started three up top in the second half and it got things going."

Central sophomore Kyle Reopelle scored an unassisted goal with 13:01 left in the game to make it 2-0. The Rockets then made it 4-0 by scoring two goals in the final minute, when Charles Fletcher and Warner each put it past the Hampshire goalkeeper.

"They had four goals," Gosling said. "One was scored by us then two in the last minute. That's the way the game goes sometimes."