Mike Devaney Quotations

Obviously two terrific rivals and a terrific early season game of football. I was pleased with the performance of the kids. Not terribly pleased with the result because I thought we did enough to win it I think we?re just going to get better from here.

If we weren't creating plenty of opportunities I would be worried.

He had a couple of really terrific finishes. It was really good for his confidence.

(There are) six teams sort of battling away for those last four playoff spots. But as far as we're concerned we probably have to win those last two games to really assure ourselves of going. If we were to lose one then we'd probably need some help somewhere along the way.

I thought defensively, at times, we got exposed. Far from perfect, and we've still got a long way to go to be playing perfect soccer.

I thought we defended poorly at times and credit to them, Van Buren took advantage. We worked really hard and played well for most of the first half, but made some mistakes late hurt us.

I think going into State you'd like to be a conference champ and higher seed so you could have that easier first round game.

We got done three times on the counter by an awfully good team and they managed to stick their chances away. We had a boat load of chances at this end and we missed some absolute sitters and it cost us in the end. But the game can be very cruel sometimes like that and we were just on the wrong end of it tonight.

We made it difficult for ourselves. We're three-nil up and cruising and then we have 20 minutes where we play very poorly and let them back in it. But (we're) an experienced group and we got it back together. Last 15 or 20 minutes I thought we were really superb.

We had a boat-load of chances. We missed some absolute sitters, and it cost us in the end. But, the game can be very cruel sometimes like that and we were just on the wrong end of it tonight.

We've got a lot of talented players in this group and collectively we all have to play well from back to front.

We weren't real sharp in front of goal.

We got off to a dream start. We bang in three goals in the first 10 minutes or whatever it was and that really settled us down.

I understand it more now. I didn't know that that many people had been affected negatively, especially around here. I wasn't aware of that.

Teams will give us a really good shot because we have a target on our back.

A dream start really. You score five goals and you shut out a good team. Certainly a lot to be pleased about.

A couple of them were really terrific finishes. I thought he's been playing well lately and this certainly is a real boost to his confidence, sticking a few in the back of the net.

The way that I wanted them to respond was 'Hey, let's go on and do something maybe that nobody's ever done before and do something a little bit special,' and they have a chance to do that. Obviously returning so many players who have the experience of going deep into the state tournament, the expectation is for us that yeah, we want to get back there and we'd like to get back to that championship game.

They've been in this situation before and they know what to expect.

They're going to be hard to beat. I would imagine winning the tournament is going through one of those guys.

It was super important. This game (conference opener) last year was the catalyst for us and it is especially important to win your home games.

It's a massive game. It's probably the most important game that we've played all year long. We really now have no margin for error at all. So we've got to go on the road and play well and we really need to win. There's really no ifs ands or buts about it. We really have to go and play well and win a game, which we're certainly capable of doing.

I don't think there are too many teams who would like to play us in the playoffs.

The key for us is can we play the way we want to play and knock the ball around and keep possession.

Alex is a terrific athlete, and he combines that with technical ability. He's a real handful for opposing defenses and proved that tonight.

The first 30 minutes was the best 30 minutes we've played all year. That was the difference in the game.

The first 20 minutes of the second half we really got out of rhythm and we didn't pass the ball at all and that's where we get ourselves into trouble.