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56ers show off depth, cruise past Eau Claire Aris in NPSL opener

05/18/2013, 1:30am CDT
By ERIC ANDERSON
Madison 56ers NPSL

Jim Launder rang in the changes Friday night, but the Madison 56ers still rang in their ninth National Premier Soccer League season with a convincing victory.

The 56ers scored three times in the final 25 minutes of the first half, two set up by Romanian midfielder Claudiu Aionesei, as they rolled past undermanned Eau Claire Aris 4-0 in their home opener at Breese Stevens Field.

Goals by UW's Derek Pitts (Middleton) and Jed Hohlbein (Middleton/UW) in a 9-minute span made it 2-0 after half an hour, and center back Matt Balshaw increased the lead with a header off a set piece in stoppage time.

"Very good," Aionesei said of the performance. "We came out pretty good. The first half, we put a lot of pressure on them and we got three goals in a fairly short time."

Carlos McCrary, who led Madison with 17 goals last year, came on as a sub in the 71st minute and needed just 3 minutes to bag his first goal of the season to finish off the scoring.

"I thought they played pretty much the way I asked," said Launder, who changed nine of 11 starters from Wednesday's 1-0 loss to the Des Moines Menace of the USL Premier Development League in a first-round match of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup – Balshaw and UW right back Carl Schneider (Madison La Follette) were the only starters to keep their spots.

Luke Goodnetter (Brookfield East) turned in an impressive performance in the middle of the park – "Very good in the air, solid, physical guy," Launder said of Goodnetter, who played for the Milwaukee Bavarians in the league last year after a stint with the 56ers in 2011.

In his first competitive match since last summer – he wasn't eligible for the fall or spring college season after transferring to UW-Milwaukee from conference rival UW-Green Bay – Goodnetter started the sequence that led to Pitts' opener, playing Aionesi in on goal.

Aris goalkeeper Chris Gosselin raced off his line to challenge, but Aionesi managed to get a shot off. The ball was slowly rolling toward the goal and Pitts zipped in, just beating an Eau Claire defender to it and tucking it into the net in the 21st minute.

"(Pitts) said it wasn't going in. I guess he decided to put it in himself," said Aionesi, who didn't record a point in his injury-plagued first season with Madison last year. "But I'm happy to help - that's what I'm here for."

Nine minutes later, Schneider played a perfectly lofted long ball on the right side to player-coach Hohlbein, the ball just getting over Eau Claire center back Pedashoo Deneus.

Hohlbein brought the ball down and got a shot off from the right side of the box while going to the ground, beating the diving Gosselin to the near post. It was the 57th career goal for Hohlbein, extending his team record.

As the final seconds ticked away in first-half stoppage time, Aionesei served a free kick from the left side into the box. Balshaw rose up and powered a header past Gosselin – who plays for Aris coach Greg Saliaras at Viterbo University in La Crosse – for his second goal with the club and a 3-0 advantage with 45 minutes remaining.

"I thought Claudiu played very well," Launder said. "He's a good player, but he got injured last year. Right when we started using him more, he got hurt and then we didn't see him much."

Aionesei came back later in the season and made the trip with the 56ers to the NPSL Final Four in San Diego, and he was on the bench for Wednesday's Open Cup match. He thinks Madison's team this year could be even better than last year's NPSL Midwest Region-championship side.

"(Tonight's match) shows there's a lot of competition and we have great depth," he said. "Credit to Jim and Jed, it's a very nice team.

"I think we've got a very strong core of players that came back, and we got even stronger with a few other guys they brought in. So I think we're going to be stronger (than last season)."

On the other side of the field, Saliaras always knew this match was going to be a tough one.

His team is still waiting for several players to join up, including standout returnee Michael Kerr from Northern Ireland. As a result, Friday's lineup included high school juniors Devin Bathke of Chippewa Falls and Xavier Yang of Eau Claire Memorial and two recent high school graduates.

"This was probably the first time that these guys have seen each other – most of them didn't know each other's names," Saliaras said. "But it's always a battle the first weekend, the first couple weeks are always tough.

"But if we can weather this, I think this year we're going to have a team that at least it can compete, it can be in closer games."

Friday's match wasn't close, as the 56ers outshot Aris 24-4, had all 12 of the corner kicks on the night and dominated possession in beating Eau Claire for the 10th time in as many meetings between the sides.

"Madison, of course, is the cream of the crop," Saliaras said. "I always admire the way they have built their program and their team. Hopefully, someday we'll be on the same level.

"It's only our fifth year, and every year we've been competing. Last year, we gave them harder games (two one-goal losses in three matches) – and even this year, when we get our full squad in, we might give them a little bit more of a challenge."

From the touchline

After playing twice in three days, the 56ers now are off until they play host to German club SV Blau-Weiss Wiehre Freiburg next Saturday at Breese Stevens. Kickoff for the 56ers' first international friendly in six years is set for 7 p.m. ... The most recent competitive match for Goodnetter and UWM center back Andrew Stone (Green Bay Preble), who also transferred from Green Bay, was a 4-2 loss to Madison at Breese Stevens when they were playing with the Bavarians last July 14. ... About Launder's only complaints about his team's performance were some loose passes in their defensive third that led to chances for Aris. "We gave a couple of light balls and we were a little bit messy in the back. We under-hit some balls," he said. "Most of the light balls were hit by UWM guys, which isn't because they're at UWM, it's because they play on really nice, fast turf – and this grass is really thick, and the field is really pitted this year. It's too bad we didn't have them for the turf game we had (Wednesday), they would have been ready for that." ... Gosselin moved from keeper to forward in the 71st minute for Aris, with Lucas Henderson taking over between the posts. ... The final word from Launder: "I think we can have a very, very good team."

Madison 56ers 4:0 (3:0 HT) Eau Claire Aris

May 17, 2013 NPSL match at Breese Stevens Field

Madison – Derek Pitts (Claudiu Aionesei) 21
Madison – Jed Hohlbein (Carl Schneider) 30
Madison – Matt Balshaw (Claudiu Aionesei) 45+
Madison – Carlos McCrary 74

MADISON 56ERS: Max Jentsch; Chris Brown, Matt Balshaw (Stacy Terry 46), Andrew Stone, Carl Schneider (Dominic O'Connor 46); Claudiu Aionesei (Max Campos 57), Luke Goodnetter (Michael Prudisch 71), Ryan Buda, Luke Jenner (Laurie Bell 69); Jed Hohlbein (Jade Johnson 61), Derek Pitts (Laurie Bell 69). Substitutes not used: None.

EAU CLAIRE ARIS: Chris Gosselin; Julio Ramirez (Tom Zook 58), Pedashoo Deneus, Joe Meyer, Devin Bathke; Jonathon Locast, Aaron Wagner, Dennis Benthin, Logan Scheppke (Lucas Henderson 71); Xavier Yang (Tenzin Tsenor 61), Jesus Soto. Substitutes not used: None.

Saves: M (Jentsch) 2, EC (Gosselin, Henderson) 5. Shots: M 24, EC 4. Corner kicks: M 12, EC 0. Fouls: M 13, EC 8. Offsides: M 2, EC 1. Discipline: M – Prudisch 87 (yellow, unsporting behavior); EC – Gosselin 90 (yellow, foul).

Madison 56ers and Eau Claire Aris players line up for the national anthem before Friday's match.

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