Junction City 6,
Sweet Home 1
Things were going all right for the Huskies early on against Junction City in soccer on Thursday, but a tough second half left them with an injured keeper and a 6-1 loss at home.
“We were playing fairly well most of the game,” said Coach Eric Stutzer. The Huskies outshot Junction City in the first half and beginning of the second half. The Huskies had seven good shots, and Junction City had two.
“I thought we could’ve stepped up on the intensity level a bit,” Stutzer said. Junction City came off the bus dragging, and the Huskies could have capitalized on that a little better.
But the Huskies had three players sick that day, he said, and a ref made an interesting call that cost the Huskies a goal and put Junction City ahead 1-0.
The Huskies responded with about five minutes left in the half when Alonso Perez scored a corner kick.
That was a huge morale boost, Stutzer said. Then the Huskies gave up a goal about 15 minutes into the second half and were trailing 2-1.
Keeper Patric Dishaw was hurt in the first goal, Stutzer said. He talked to a lineman about coming out when he probably should have taken a knee. His injury contributed to another goal in the next couple of minutes.
Stutzer got him off the field – he’ll be out for games this week – and adjusted the defensive lineup.
“Everybody deflated,” Stutzer said, and Junction City continued scoring.
Elmira 2, Sweet Home 0
Elmira defeated the Huskies on the road 2-0 on Sept. 30.
“We gave up a goal at about 25 minutes that we shouldn’t have given up,” Stutzer said. A player stepped out of position, and Elmira’s kicker had a great shot to take a 1-0 lead.
“It was an extremely violent game,” Stutzer said. His team came home with an unusually large number of bumps and bruises. It had a lot of pushing and shoving from behind. It was one of those games the coach is counting the seconds until the end for fear of a player getting hurt.
The Huskies lost their composure and gave up a penalty kick in the second half to trail 2-0.
The Huskies outplayed Elmira, Stutzer said. They outshot Elmira, and they mostly out-hustled Elmira. The Huskies shot the ball 12 times, while Elmira shot it just five times, with Dishaw collecting three saves.
This week, Stutzer anticipates his team will have recovered from illness, although Dishaw will remain out on the injury.
“We can’t let adversity dictate the way we play,” Stutzer said. “We can’t give games away because they’re not going our way.”
The key is improving mental toughness, he said, and they will work on shoring up the keeper position and defense this week. The team needs an experienced backup keeper, and the team will work on minimizing the little mental errors.
“I was really, really pleased with how they played against Elmira,” Stutzer said. He doesn’t think the score shows just how well they played that game and the improvements they made, passing and keeping their composure.
“They really played their hearts out on Tuesday,” Stutzer said, beaten up and tired from the late evening game, they were sore and worn out for Thursday’s matchup against Junction City.
The Huskies have a bye on Thursday and next face Sutherlin at home on Tuesday. They are 0-5 in league and 1-8 overall.