It wasn't a complicated system that kept top-ranked Gretna undefeated on Saturday.
“It's gotten to the point where it's, 'Get the ball forward as quickly as possible,'” Dragons coach Tyler Ortlieb said. “And good things tend to happen.”
Class A No. 1 Gretna got a second-half goal from UNO freshman Maguire Perkins and held on for a 1-0 victory over No. 6 Omaha South on Saturday at Collin Stadium.
This ended an opening month in which the Dragons racked up five wins against teams in the preseason rankings.
“We found a way to win,” Ortlieb said.
His group's latest example was the issue of resilience.
Gretna, playing without two starting midfielders who were injured earlier in the week, toyed with their formation for the first 40 minutes Saturday.
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Ortlieb liked how the group looked in the second half as they switched to a comfortable 3-5-2 and shifted the focus back to feeding the Dragons' standout attacking line.
It paid off in the 51st minute, as Perkins, a two-time All-Nebraska selection, scored his team-leading eighth goal of the year. The senior's diagonal shot from the top of the box ended up in the back of the goal, resulting in the only goal of the game.
But for Ortlieb, what it looked like didn't really matter. The win came two days after the Dragons lost senior Colin McClung for the season with a foot injury. They were also playing without fellow senior Ian Jones in midfield.
“When you lose those two guys in a 3-5-2 formation, you're going to pull guys up and move them around and try to find something that clicks,” Ortlieb said. “If you had told me on Thursday that I was going to miss those guys and go to South Omaha … and find a way to win 1-0 on the road, I would have said that's impossible. It would be.”
Monday's game against Omaha-Benson will be the Dragons' final preparation for next week's Metro Conference Tournament.
At Omaha South (4-1) 0 0 – 0
Goal: G, Maguire Perkins.