Eagles take care of Indians 3-1

By TRAVIS DOWNEY

Florida Freedom Newspapers
(850) 315-4476 | travisd@nwfdailynews.com

NICEVILLE - Having just witnessed his team's 1-0 lead vanquish, Niceville boys soccer coach Wesley Nelson was eager to see how his team would respond.

Two goals later he had his answer and another win, to boot.

Niceville (4-0, 4-0 District 1-5A) remained perfect on the season following a 3-1 win over district rival Choctawhatchee (3-1-1, 2-1-1) Thursday night, and once again Eagles' senior Reed White was right in the middle of everything.

Even after seeing its early lead that came on a White kick from directly in front of the net erased when Choctaw's Ricky Hoegg had a slicing score from 30 yards out, Niceville hardly blinked.

Instead, it turned back to White, who responded by lofting a well-placed downfield pass to junior Pedro Alba, who had snuck behind the Indians' defense and beat Choctaw goalie Tony Lenyo one-on-one for the go-ahead score.

Then, near the 75th minute of play, Choctaw's Ryan Conley was called for a foul, setting up a penalty kick that White drilled in the upper left corner of the net just past the outstretched arms of a diving Lenyo to clinch the Eagles' fourth straight win.

"We rely on Reed to come through and he got an opportunity on the penalty kick and he put it away," Nelson said.

Niceville established the tone early and spent much of the first half on the Chocatwhatchee end of the field, much to the chagrin of Indians' coach Chris McDaniel.

"We didn't pressure at all in that first half," McDaniel said. "We sat back so much and they just worked all over us."

Still, despite numerous shots on goal - some from point-blank range - the Eagles managed just one score through the first 15 minutes.

Once Niceville finally did find the back of the net on Alba's breakaway goal, the Eagles tried to put Choctaw away early in the second half but, instead, spent much of the period fending off a resilient Indians' team before White's penalty kick punctuated the Eagles' home opener.