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Coach Martin
and Coach Delaney watched Saturday as the Patriots dropped all
three opening scrimmages in the home Playday. - Photo- Tracy
Fernholz
MILLERSVILLE,
Md. -- In Coach Martin's usual first test of a new season,
the Patriots, two days removed from final cuts, took the
field Saturday against perhaps 3 of the the top 10 teams in
the area. At the end of the day, the coaches pointed
more toward a test of their players' collective will, rather
than the results on the scoreboard.
"We've built our success over the last 10 years by
challenging ourselves in the preseason," said Coach Martin.
"We're not interested in playing struggling teams and
scoring lots of goals just to have a false sense of
confidence. We've found that playing the best in the
area in our scrimmages prepares us much better for the Anne
Arundel County league schedules."
Obviously, the effect of Saturday's games still remains to
be seen, but although the Pats were outscored by an
aggregate 7-0, there were some positives to be drawn.
"We're very happy with the effort and fight in some of our
new players to the program," added Martin. "There was some
dynamic soccer in some stages of today's games. The
trick now is to put it together consistently for 80 minutes
every night."
It doesn't get any easier for the Pats as they visit Mt. St.
Joe on Tuesday for another scrimmage that will surely
provide another stiff test of the early progress of the 2008
team.
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