Covenant was unshaken by the fact they’d faced North Cross twice, including once recently in the VIC tournament, and left with a loss and a tie. The Eagles had an excellent idea of exactly what they needed to do in the VISAA Division II semifinal against North Cross.
“We came in really confident — we just had to stop their key players and they moved those players around quite a bit and tactically we tried to adjust and shut them down,” said Covenant coach Bryan Verbrugge.
The Eagles did that for the most part and managed to hold on to a 2-1 victory at Ukrops Park in Richmond Thursday night and secure a spot in the Division II final Friday night. The Eagles will face Carlisle at 5:30 p.m.
Alec and Brandon De Jong had the two goals for the Eagles, with Alec striking early in the first half to stake Covenant to a 1-0 lead. Brandon scored what became the game winner in the 48th minute and the Eagles held on despite surrendering a goal to North Cross late that pulled the Raiders within one.
“I can’t say enough about the De Jong brothers, the way that they’re stepping up and scoring goals in big situations,” Verbrugge said.
A big reason things have opened up for the De Jongs is the continued excellent play of Girma Fekadu Baker. Fekadu Baker has been instrumental in taking the attack to the opposition.
“Girma was his normal creative self, he’s drawing a lot of attention and they were man-marking him,” Verbrugge said. “So it doesn’t look like he’s getting the stats that he should but he’s drawing a lot of attention and creating things for other people.”
Goalie Jonathan Whyte put together a sterling performance in goal, including coming up with a key save in stoppage time to preserve the victory.
“It looked to me like it was on the ground and headed in,” Verbrugge said.
Now the Eagles get a chance to play for the state final Friday at 5:30 in Richmond.
“Our guys have really set some high goals and they’re working really hard to achieve them,” Verbrugge said
They’re on the cusp of making it the finest season in Covenant’s history. The Eagles have never won a state title in boys soccer.
