Dutchtown blanks Woodlawn in lopsided victory
Facing a struggling Woodlawn squad on Friday night minus four starters—which included last year’s district MVP Zayne Zezulka—it would have been easy for Dutchtown to go through the motions and pull out an ugly, uninspired victory.
But that never happened on Friday night. The Griffins came out aggressive and never let up.
Dutchtown scored two goals in the first four minutes of play and eventually took a 5-0 lead at halftime. It took just 14 minutes of second-half play for them to score three more and win the game by way of the mercy rule.
“We want to have that intensity on the field at all times—no matter who we’re playing or where we’re playing,” Griffin head coach Marcus Dyer said. “It’s a mentality and not a decision. You live it, and they showed that tonight. That’s what we wanted. We challenged them before the game, and they stepped up.”
Brock Shadle-Colon and Ayden Rawashdeh both had sensational games for the Griffins, and they made their impact felt right from the opening minute.
In minute one, Shadle-Colon got the ball to Rawashdeh, and he finished at the net with a header to give Dutchtown a quick 1-0 lead.
Just three minutes later, Rawashdeh got out in front of the defense and smoked one past the keeper to push the advantage to 2-0.
At the 13th minute, Shadle-Colon and Rawashdeh were right back at it. Rawashdeh earned the hat trick after being set up by Shadle-Colon.
Four minutes later, Jaxson Stovall scored on a penalty kick just outside of the box to extend the Griffin lead to 4-0.
To end the half, Rawashdeh sent a pretty pass out in front of Nicholas Corrales, and he finished inside the box to give Dutchtown a 5-0 lead at the break.
In the second half, Shadle-Colon picked up a hat trick of his own. He scored at the 45th minute, the 49th minute and he ended the game with a goal at minute 54.
Both he and Rawashdeh finished the game with three goals and two assists.
“It was nice to see that, because most of the time, they’re in the shadow of that senior that we have (Zayne Zezulka), so for them to have games where they can show that they’re players of quality, it gets their confidence up and lets them know that when the time comes and we need them, they can step up for us,” Dyer said.
Dutchtown finished with an amazing 25-1 advantage on shots.
“We had four starters playing in a showcase in South Carolina tonight, so it was a great opportunity for these younger players to come out and show that next year and in years to come, we’re starting a culture around here where we’re not relaying on a few players to be a team; we’re relying on everybody to be the team,” Dyer said.
Ever since dropping their first game to St. Paul’s, Dutchtown has gone 8-1.
“I like where we are,” Dyer said. “Obviously, we’re still chasing the No. 1 (St. Paul’s). We learned a lot since we lost to them in the first game. We know what we need to do. We know how we need to work and what mindset it takes to be at that level, so hopefully, that’s where we’ll be when the time comes.”