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By Alex Frazier
A team without a leader is like a ship without a rudder.
There’s no telling where it’s going to go.
It might scuttle on the rocks, run aground on a sandbar or sail in circles.
But Central Bucks West appears to have two strong leaders that have the ship sailing in the right direction if Friday’s 2-0 win over William Tennent at War Memorial Field is any indication.
“Any time you get a win the first day out, it’s nice,” said West coach Steve Detweiler. “The boys worked hard. They earned it.”
New Tennent coach Dave Jones was understandably upset with his team’s performance, especially after two strong performances in a double scrimmage against Lower Merion (3-2 loss) and West Chester Rustin (3-2 win).
“I was hoping for a little more fire, a little more heart,” he said. “You have to have it. Right now we don’t. Scrimmages, we had it.
“We weren’t firing on all cylinders today. The difference between today and the first two was we did a better job of pressuring the ball in our offensive third, so it made it difficult for teams to come out against us.”
West’s Sam Wild was the first leader to step up when he scored the first goal of the game just 52 seconds into the contest.
“It was a great way to start the season,” he said. “It was a great ball. I knew I had to put it away, get a 1-0 lead.”
Robert Hutchinson won a ball at midfield and threaded a through pass to Wild, who was breaking up the right side. He beat a defender to the ball and dribbled in on Tennent keeper Calvin Young, beating him to the right.
“I get lost in the game,” said Wild. “It was just a reaction.”
Jones knew then that his team was in trouble.
“We were just flat-footed coming out,” he said. “There was a mix-up on coverage.”
Wild had another chance in the 28th minute, but Young slide tackled the ball away from him. 
The Bucks scored the insurance goal on a pretty sequence that originated with Andrew Carroll, who passed the ball to Bryan Werner to the left of the goal. Werner redirected it to Matt Sutorius, who fired it past Young at the 4:29 mark of the first half.
“We turned all of our heads to the ball, and the guy was left wide open at the top of the 18 for that shot,” said Jones. “We weren’t following our marks across the field.”
A three-year starter and the anchor of the defense, sweeper J.P. Grove stepped into his leadership role in the second half when the Panthers turned up the heat. Sixteen minutes into the half, the Panthers’ Justin Massaro found Dan Eckhardt on the left side behind the West defense. Bucks’ keeper Ray Downs was forced to take him on, but Eckhardt got off a shot that was headed into the open goal. Just in time, Grove booted the ball off the line to deny the Panthers.
“I thought that was trouble,” he said. “I didn’t know if there was anybody behind me. I figured slide and get it or let it go in.”
Not much of a choice.
Clearly it was a play that gave the Bucks’ defensive unit confidence.
“We’ve been practicing hard,” said Grove. “We have some things to work on, but we’ll figure it out.”
“When you have somebody like J.P. back there, who has so much experience, it’s huge, and he’s such a great leader,” said Detweiler. “He’s diving in there to clear it off the line, and his whole team sees that and they want to do the same thing. When you have that leadership, things fall into place a lot better. Last year we struggled with leadership.”
Downs responded late in the game with a pair of deflections and a good save on a laser shot by Tim McCabe on a direct kick that deflected off the West wall.
“Ray made a couple of nice saves, kept us in it,” said Grove.
The Panthers had two late corners but couldn’t capitalize, and West recorded it first shutout of the year.
“Their backs did a real nice job of coming up and making the play real tight,” said Jones. “They didn’t play with it. Anytime they needed to, they knocked it out. They were never one to the ball. There was always another guy coming and looking to help defend. They had a lot more heart than we did.”
For Tennent, a non-league loss may not make a difference in the big picture, but Jones is hoping that it will ignite the players, who will have a week off to work on their shortcomings.
“It gives us a look,” he said. “We know we have to improve and work harder.”
Though West showed it is well manned and plowing ahead full steam in game No. 1, there are still 17 more to play, and coach Detweiler knows a lot can happen.
“We worked hard today,” he said. “That’s one of the things we have to do every game. Now it’s about finding that consistency in the work rate and being able to duplicate another 17 times.”
Central Bucks West (1-0) 2, William Tennent (0-1) 0
Goals: Sam Wild (CBW), Matt Sutorius (CBW)
Assists: Robert Hutchinson (CBW), Andrew Carroll (CBW), Bryan Werner (CBW)
Shots: Central Bucks West 7, William Tennent 10
Saves: Ray Downs (CBW) 5, Calvin Young (WT) 3
Corners: Central Bucks West 4, William Tennent 4
Fouls: Central Bucks West 11, William Tennent 9
Yellow cards: Bob Note (WT)
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