Sweet Home’s boys soccer team finished its season with a 7-0 loss to Cascade at home Tuesday, Oct. 28.
The Huskies finished 2-11-1 overall, 0-9-1 in league with the tie coming against the Cougars at Cascade on Oct. 9.
“We played some really good teams this year, especially during league play,” Coach Eric Stutzer said. “Of the nine teams we played this season, four are in the playoffs.”
The Huskies held their own against teams like East Linn Christian (2-1 loss), Kennedy (2-1 win) and Junction City (1-0 win), but struggled against the competition in the Oregon West Conference, in which four of the six teams, led by No. 1 and league champion Stayton, finished the regular season ranked in the top 10 of the 4A Division.
Stutzer noted that Cascade, No. 18 in the final 4A rankings, is “very good” and probably would have been “a top-three team in any other league.”
He added that two or three more OWC teams likely would have been represented in the playoffs if the OSAA had not eliminated the play-in model.
“Surprisingly, Philomath was No. 9 in the state and didn’t make a playoff match due to the new qualifications, even though they were ranked higher than a number of other teams.”
Sweet Home lacks the experience that other communities have in the game.
“We will hand out 12 first-year letters this season; much of those 12 have never played or have very little experience. It is tough to play the talented teams in our league with predominantly first- and second–year players.”
Despite that, he noted, Sweet Home held No. 6 Newport to 4-1 this season and got the tie with Cascade, which lost its first four OWC games before tying Sweet Home, then went 1-2-3 down the stretch.
“We have seen quite a bit of improvement this season and have come a long way from where we started,” Stutzer said.
