The Huskies scored on Sisters, losing 6-1 on the road on Oct. 23, and that’s a big deal in league play.
“I believe we are the second team to have scored on them at that point (in league),” said Coach Ryan Regrutto. “They are not giving up many goal.
“Toward the end, we were just playing a scrappy style.”
Steven Ulmer moved the ball up the field to Egan Shamek who dribbled it on into a cluster of defenders. He won the ball back and played it to Nick Rodgers. Rodgers was about 20 yards out, and had an opening.
He shot the ball over the keeper’s head, Regrutto said. “It was really well done.”
The goal came in the last 15 seconds of the game, Regrutto said. “The kids never quit, never gave up. They kept going after it.”
Statistically, Sisters is the best team in the state, Regrutto said. The Outlaws have given up fewer goals than anyone else, and the Huskies managed to turn a single goal into a high note at the end of the season.
“It was a good way to end the season,” Regrutto said. The team didn’t win as many games as he thought they would. Several games could have broken the Huskies’ way and improved their record.
“Overall, we were a lot more competitive in a lot of our games,” Regrutto said. “We did have a few games where the scores are indicative of it. We played a lot more games where we were in the middle of it, playing soccer and doing some good things. I’m really proud of where we ended up.”
Even if it hasn’t been as fast as he had hoped, the team still improved this year, he said. “We were a young team.”
Half of them were sophomores, and they were from a winning a JV team last year.
“We have a lot of potential,” Regrutto said, and the program is definitely building upward right now.
The JV team had a rough year with injuries and constantly had players out, but they still had quite a few wins.
The mentality that comes with getting wins affected the varsity team this year, he said. The young ones were used to winning as opposed to the nervous energy the team had in the past.
Although there was no junior high boys program this year, Regrutto said, there are some good younger players who will help the team when they reach high school. At the same time, keeping the feeder program working is a priority down the road.
The team needs numbers, and the numbers the younger programs generate are what’s helped the team find a light at the end of the tunnel this year, he said.
Regrutto wanted to specifically thank JV coach Eric Stutzer for doing what he always does, a great job with the JV players, who always make huge strides.
He also thanked Michael Rolph for joining as an assistant coach, Regrutto’s first assistant in the past four years.
Rolph was always there and has been highly supportive of the players, he said