Published: October 14, 2009 12:18 am      

Undefeated Berries take aim at Argos Regional

Logansport boys soccer team seeking first regional title since 2006

Logansport’s boys soccer team is taking its perfect 17-0 record into tonight’s Argos Regional.

The Berries face North Miami (10-7-1) in the 5 p.m. semifinal, followed by Marion (14-5) vs. No. 20 Warsaw (11-4-4). The final is set for 4 p.m. Saturday.

North Miami advanced to the regional by winning the Caston Sectional. It was the Warriors’ third sectional title in a row.

“Obviously they’re pretty good to make it to the regional for the third straight year,” Logan coach Mike Turner said. “They beat Plymouth during the regular season 3-2. Plymouth is good, very physical. They gave Warsaw a good match in the sectional.

“[The Warriors] might have a few weakness, but I know they’re much improved from last year. I think it’ll be a good game, but honestly I think if we play our best game and play like we’re supposed to, we should be able to handle them.”

Turner said Marion and Warsaw are evenly matched.

“Marion I think is healthy now. I don’t think they were when we played them because their coach told me they had three kids with the flu,” he said. “They beat Kokomo 3-2 in the regular season but in the sectional they beat them 5-1.

“Warsaw is ranked 20th. They only have two seniors and the rest are juniors and sophomores. They have a freshman who has scored a lot of goals. He’s pretty quick. We scrimmaged them at the start of the season, and he gave us some problems. I think Marion and Warsaw will go down to the wire. Marion has really good speed up front.”

The Berries won their eighth straight sectional title and 15th out of a possible 16 last weekend. They’ve won eight regional titles, the last coming in 2006.

The Berries went undefeated during the regular season for the first time in school history. It’s quite a jump from last season, when they went 8-8-3 overall.

“There’s no weak spots that we might have,” said senior forward Jairo Rodriguez, who has scored a team-high 26 goals this season. “There’s good defense, good goalie, good offense. They distribute the ball well, our mids.

“We have good leadership from our seniors.”

“I think our possession is a lot better this year,” senior defender Jared Jennings said. “We play really, really strong together. ... Last year we had a few real young players that played. This year everyone’s stepped up and they know their roles.”

“This year we know each other more, we talk more,” junior defender Cristian Quintero added. “We communicate pretty good. Last year we hardly knew each other, so that’s why I would say we didn’t play as good as we did this year.”

Despite going undefeated, the Berries aren’t ranked. Turner has said that’s given his squad a chip on their shoulder. The players said they beat some formidable opponents and know they can compete with the best in the state.

“The Lafayette teams we have played were pretty good,” Rodriguez said. “They were kind of at the level of Warsaw. When we played them early, we were up 1-0 and we were kind of dominating them I thought. I missed a couple that I should have scored. I think we can give them a battle and win.”

“I think one game was the Harrison game where we beat them 1-0,” Jennings added. “I’ve seen a lot of really high-ranked teams only beat them 2-1 and 2-0, so I know we can compete at that level with them even though we’re not ranked up there with them.”