ARGOS – North Miami could provide little more than a speed bump as the #1 (1A) Argos Dragons began the road to the defense of their state title with an exclamation point win 11-0.

The Dragons came out firing, hitting a goal in the first three minutes, five more between the 30th minute and the 20th minute and coasted the rest of the way.
“I think games like this test the focus of a group,” said Argos coach Todd VanDerWeele. “In this situation, I was happy with the way the starters came out and played but I was able to get guys on the field who had big JV minutes this year.”
With the game in hand for much of the first and all of the second half the Dragons were able to utilize the time to help build their bench for the tournament run.
“They got extended minutes and I was really happy with the way those guys came off the bench,” said VanDerWeele. “They performed really well, individually and as a group.”
“For not having played for a week or ten days I was really happy with the way they performed,” he said. “We’ve been able to get these guys extended minutes twice this year and it really helps them develop.”
The Dragon starters showed the fact that they really aren’t taking anything for granted.
“I don’t think we were sharp, per se, but we played hard,” said VanDerWeele. “We were creating opportunities left and right, we made some things happen and it was nice to get that done early.”
“The biggest thing is that the focus was deceblue-collar it was,” he said. “For us specifically in this situation, coming off two huge conference games in three days and not having a day to prepare this is always just trying to get through it and have a chance to start recovering.”
“We don’t get much of a break but we will get some before we play again Wednesday.”
Hoping for an encore, this year’s Dragons squad has a different personality than last year’s group. Not as flashy as last year’s group they have every bit as much firepower.
“This team is probably a little more blue collar,” said VanDerWeele. “There isn’t the same flash this year but it’s more of lets just get the job done kind of an attitude. We don’t have that flashy player this year. We utilize some other things that we have.”
What they have is a group of veteran players that have a lot of experience.
“We utilize other weapons like Gabe Stone with his quickness and speed and ability to play a ball across,” said VanDerWeele. “Cam Markley really delivers the ball well. Ted (Redinger) is so hard to deal with physically because he’s so big and strong.”
“Michael (Richard) is the one that sets the edge,” he said. “His work rate is phenomenal, he creates things, he disrupts things when he’s defending. He just goes, goes, goes.”
Redinger had a hat trick in the first half with an assist. Sean Richard ended the night with a pair of goals.
Argos moves to 13-3-1 on the year and will play Caston on Wednesday night at Eugene Snyder Field with a 7 p.m. start.
*ARGOS 11, NORTH MIAMI 0
at Argos Sectional
First Half
Argos Devon Allen (Ted Redinger) 6th
Argos Ben Rangel 10th
Argos Redinger (Cam Markley) 15th
Argos Redinger (Gabe Stone) 17th
Argos Mike Richard 18th
Argos Redinger (Jake Stults) 20th
Argos Sean Richard (Allen) 22nd
Argos S. Richard (Nate Manikowski) 24th
Argos Dylan Kindig (Coleman Fishburn) 35th
Second half
Argos Tomas Guitierrez 44th
Argos Darrell Gibson 68th
Shots on goal: Argos-25, North Miami-0
Saves: North Miami-14 (Nick Moreland)
Records: Argos 13-3-1