Another clean sheet, another Ryle victory.
The Raiders defense was dominant once again in a 3-0 shutout victory over Highlands on Thursday in Union.
The 10 men in front made it easy on Raiders (8-2) keeper Landon Barth, finishing with five saves and only one that really threatened crossing the goal line.
“I’ve had to probably make less than 30 saves on the season. As a keeper, I like when it’s boring. That means we’re doing well. If I maybe have to make three or four saves then I’ll take that,” Barth said.
The Bluebirds closest threat came early in the first half when Barth had to dive to his right off a header from a corner kick to bat it away.
Ryle owned the game before that and the rest of the way. They struggled with precision in the first half, numerous shots sailing over the crossbar or wide of the net. The chances showed in their shot total, nine shots and four of them on goal.
The Raiders attack finally broke through in the second half when Diego Hoenderkamp hit Brice Denigan in the box, Denigan slotting one in from close range for the game’s first blood at the 42-minute mark.
Raiders coach Stephen Collins felt pretty good at that point as they improved to 6-0 in 9th Region play.
“Our mantra is shutouts win games. We basically reset after our first two games and just started working from the defensive end forward,” Collins said. “I’ll take my chances in a 1-0 game with Diego, Brice, Josh…someone is going to put one in. Our defense is strong and the backbone of this team.”
Highlands (6-2-2) was unable to get much traction after that, Ryle minimizing the majority of their threats until the Bluebirds put a shot on goal 16 minutes into the second half. The next threat came in the 73rd minute, but was scooped up by Barth.
“We just need to be better on the few opportunities we do get,” Bluebirds coach Suli Kayed said. “They have a lot of talent and keeping them from scoring is not an easy thing to do. We thought we were still in it down 1-0, need to learn our lessons today and learn from our mistakes.”
Ryle continued to own possession from there, able to break through again in the 77th minute when Josh Line found Denigan on a cross and the sophomore Denigan finished for his ninth goal of the season.
Hoenderkamp added another for good measure in the closing seconds on a penalty kick to make the final score.
The state semifinalist from a season ago has found its groove.
“I’d say it shows we’re kind of top dog in the region right now. It’s good competition in Region 9 and it feels good to be here right now,” Hoenderkamp said. “It’s nice to see where you are and how you stack up.”
After the Raiders dropped their first two games of the season and gave up six goals to Frederick Douglass and Henry Clay, they’ve won eight straight and allowed two goals during that span.
“I think really the big thing was just chemistry. Lexington trip we were getting on each other a little bit too much,” Barth said. “Now we’ve been able to give a little bit more constructive criticism and we’ve definitely been able to connect more with each other.”
The Raiders will try to make it nine in a row when they host North Hardin on Saturday in a 3:30 p.m. start.
Highlands looks to regroup Saturday when they host Roger Bacon (Ohio) at 11:30 a.m.
Under constant attack, Sam Lang made 9 saves for the Bluebirds.
“We battled for 80 minutes today. It’s on us as a coaching staff to get us there,” Kayed said.
Ryle finished with 23 shots, 12 of them on goal to go with seven corner kicks. Highlands tallied eight shots, five of them on net with four corner kicks. It was a rather clean game with nine fouls whistled and one yellow card to the Bluebirds on the Hoenderkamp penalty kick.