Advertisement

She continues to emphasize that the Elks need to send the ball outside, and use the field's width to their advantage.

When the ball goes to the center, it effectively negates the Elks defense's great play and permits the opponent more opportunities to threaten.

No matter how hard the defense works to turn back the opponent's attack, pushing the ball to the middle spoils their chances of getting an attack of their own going.

The Elks have the speed and quickness at the forwards to sprint down the field, perhaps catching the opponents muddled in the middle and forced into a chase to the goal.

Unfortunately, the Elks appear to have a mental block and continue to kick the ball toward the middle of the field.

All too often, centering the ball in the middle of the field permits the opponents to snuff out any potential offensive attacks.

Despite that disturbing tendency, the Elks are not completely without offensive opportunities.

But every time they are within striking distance of the goal, it seems they acquire quick triggers.

Instead of using the patience their coach preaches, and position themselves for a good shot, the Elks fire the ball too soon.

That frequently results in the ball either sailing a bit wide, or over the goal.

Krakow would like to see the Elks get better placement on their shots, and start improving their shot percentage.

In the first half in a 1-0 win over Glen Lake, for instance, the Elks were only 1-of-11.

"Those aren't good odds, girls," Krakow said to her team during the break between periods.

No, they aren't.

Elk Rapids' poor shot placement and inability to get the ball to the outside finally turned around to bite them in a 1-0 loss to Charlevoix on Monday.

It dropped the Elks into second place in the Lake Michigan Conference, and while they are 5-2-1 overall it pointed out the need to get a better grip on their offense.

Offense has been a problem for the Elks all season.

They have scored just two goals in their last three games, and that's not an encouraging sign.

Eventually, the defense and goalkeeping is going to start suffering from fatigue because it's constantly under pressure.

In a one-goal game, even a momentary lapse can result in an opening for the opponent to score.

And with the Elks suffering a goal-scoring famine right now, that's not apt to be a good thing.

One goal is all it takes to win.

Krakow had pushed the girls to use more passing, and be more patient on offense during pre-season.

Practices often found her repeating that she wanted the girls to pass the ball five times before shooting.

But the Elks would often shoot the ball after only making three passes, and sometimes two.

While it's difficult not to want to send the ball toward the net when there appears to be an opening, the Elks need to get closer to the goal and make their shots count.

The Elks are improving their communication skills on the field, but they still need to work on passing the ball to the outside and being more patient on offense.

Defensively, they're playing tremendous ball.

Franki Price is doing a great job in goal, making some incredible saves.

Now, the Elks just need to break that habit of centering the ball to the middle of the field.

They need to cut their forwards loose for those breakaways.

And they're not going to do it trying to get through the opponent's defense in the middle.