Published: August 24, 2008 12:14 am         

Comets blast off

Caston tops Delphi 11-1 in soccer home opener

FULTON — Caston soccer coach Mark Gardner has stated that he likes this year’s team.

Saturday morning at the Crater his team gave many Comet followers a glimpse of what could be a very promising ‘08 campaign. In their second year of varsity soccer the Delphi Oracles came calling and the Comets responded by dispatching the visitors 11-1.

“I think we played a good game all together, our offense pulled together from the last game and our defense stayed strong all game,” Caston junior Garrett Johnson said.

Both teams got on the scoreboard quickly when Jon Burns found the back of the net for Caston and Delphi’s Jared Kelley scored off a penalty kick to even the game at 1-all.

Both defenses played fairly solid until the 11:13 mark of the first half when Dylan Johnson hit off a breakaway to make it 2-1 in favor of Caston. From that point on the Oracles were served a large dose of the Comets’ offense.

With 5:40 left in the first half Caston’s Cody Graham took a shot at goal that came up empty but teammate Zach Ault was there to follow up the miss giving Caston a 3-1 lead. Next, at the 4:23 mark, Burns again found the back of the net for a 4-1 lead going into the half.

Starting the second half both defenses stepped up their play until the 25:34 mark when the Comets’ Preston Howard scored off another breakaway giving the home team a 5-1 lead. At 18:18 Comet Tristan Conner found net to increase the lead to 6-1. Shortly after, Garrett Johnson of Caston blasted one by the Delphi goalie to give the locals a 7-1 lead. Twenty-eight seconds later Garrett Johnson found himself in the right place as he booted in his second goal of the game to increase the margin to seven at 8-1.

At the 15:36 mark of the second half Delphi looked to close the gap when Caston goalie Donnie McClain came out of goal to attempt a defensive stop but Delphi blasted it by him. Unfortunately for the Oracles the goal was waved off as there had been an offside call made. Not to be outdone by his teammates Ricardo Prado found net at the 9:37 mark to make it 9-1 for Caston. The offense wasn’t finished yet for the Comets as Garrett Johnson scored his third goal of the game off a penalty kick at the 9:07 mark to make it 10-1. Caston completed the rout when Cody Franklin’s shot hit the back of the net with 4:16 left in the game making it a 11-1 final score.

For the game Caston’s defense had 13 fouls tallied against them while the offense recorded 18 shots on goal. After the game, Gardner said he was happy with the performance of his team.

“I thought they did real well. Our midfield needs a little bit of work but other than that I thought we played a really good game,” the Caston coach said.

Gardner was also quick to give credit to his assistant coaches Shelly Johnson and Narciso Sanchez for his team’s efforts.

Delphi returns to action on Thursday when it travels to Lafayette Central Catholic. Caston will take the field again on Monday when the Comets travel to Kokomo to face Taylor.