Games VS Lafayette Swampcats

[Eckleburg]

I see on the Shell Shockers web site where the Shockers lost to the Swampcats 3-1 last night (Friday 4/30). Did anyone see the game? What will happen tonight in NO?

[Eckleburg]

Found this article in the Lafayette Paper:

LAFAYETTE — Lafayette Swamp Cats coach Sean Connor wasn’t sure which to be more impressed by — his team’s overall defensive effort or the explosiveness of Blaine Cottam.

Those were the biggest factors as the Swamp Cats made their debut a successful one Friday night in a 3-1 exhibition soccer victory over the New Orleans Shell Shockers at Clark Field.

“We defended well as a unit,” Connor said after Lafayette’s new entry in the Premier Development League turned in a solid opening performance. “We always had a man behind the ball, and we basically forced them to play a lot of long balls and try to force things.”

The New Orleans squad, which went 16-2 in the PDL last year and reached the Southern Conference final, resorted to desperation after Cottam’s two rapid-fire goals in a two-minute second-half stretch gave the hosts a comfortable 3-0 lead.

“He’s a box-to-box midfielder,” Connor said of Carencro High product Cottam. “He’s a local guy and he needs to learn a little bit of the shrewdness of the game, but he’s the type of guy that can get 12 or 15 goals for us this season. If he does that, we can do very well.”

The Swamp Cats open their regular season tonight against the same New Orleans club, traveling for its official 7 p.m. debut, but Connor said he saw enough good things from the exhibition outing to give him confidence for the regular season.

“We created ourselves a lot of opportunities,” he said. “Jonas Lopez had five headers and hit the post with two of them, and their goalkeeper had to make some good saves. Adrian Boyle and Ryan Tucker both have a lot of experience in the back, and both of them had good games.

“I was disappointed that we gave up the goal, but it was in the last two minutes when some guys were doing their own thing.”

New Orleans got a late goal from Tony Judice in a rush against Swamp Cats goalie Scott LeBleu, but that was Lafayette’s only major defensive lapse. And it was a big defensive play late in the first half that preserved their 1-0 halftime lead.

Lafayette’s Matt Millet scored against Shocker goalie Garrett Hebert on a penalty kick 24 minutes into the game, one set up by Nick Lambert’s hand ball, but New Orleans was poised for the equalizer seven minutes later when Tucker was whistled for a pushing foul in the penalty box.

Shocker forward Matt Kelso took the potential tying penalty kick, but Swamp Cats goalie Javier Pastor batted away Kelso’s shot at the right corner of the goal.

Pastor finished with six saves in the first half and LeBleu had three in the final half as Lafayette held the Shell Shockers to only 10 shots on goal.

The Swamp Cats finished with 13 of their 21 shots on goal, and two of them came when the hosts missed a golden opportunity to make it 2-0 just after halftime. Lopez had a header go off the left post and David Stovall also clanged the post with a rebound attempt.

But Lafayette forced the pace most of the second half, and finally made an opportunity count with 16:54 left when Cottam took a centering pass, split two defenders and beat Hebert with a chip into the left corner for a 2-0 lead.

Less than two minutes later, the Swamp Cats took advantage of a New Orleans defensive mistake when Hebert tried to punch away a crossing shot. Cottam came up with the loose ball at point-blank range and rolled a shot into the right corner for the clincher.

“We made seven substitutions and that makes it tough getting into rhythm,” Connor said, “but we wanted to look at players because it starts for real tomorrow. This one was for nothing if we don’t win down there, but if we can go get at least a point (for a tie) in our first match I’ll be happy.”