Sweet Home boys soccer lost twice last week, first falling 8-1 to the number one ranked 4A team in the state, Philomath, on Oct. 12. They then lost 8-0 on the road at Sisters on Oct. 14.
Against Sisters, Head Coach Eric Stutzer said that “All in all, we didn’t play terribly bad. Our kids did a great job.”
“We were able to play strong, move the ball to the outside on them, and get some offensive pressure,” he continued.
As a result of that pressure, sophomore Colton Savri was able to score a goal off of an assist from junior Caleb Christman shortly after halftime, a success that represented only the fifth goal scored against the Warriors all season.
“We were hustling and had no give-up the entire game,” Stutzer said.
The coach said that mistakes in his team’s positioning led to some of Philomath’s goals, and his team also missed some opportunities on the offensive end.
Stutzer said that the effort was a marked improvement from the last time his team faced Philomath, when they “barely got any pressure on them at all” and only had one shot against the Warriors the whole game.
This time, however, the Huskies had “probably three opportunities that should have been goals down the stretch, and had notched 10-12 shots by the end of the game, Stutzer surmised.
All of this comes after the Huskies were sidelined the previous week due to quarantine protocols.
“I’m happy we were able to hang in there after the off-time. Much of the team had not had any practice before the match,” the coach said.
The Sisters game was another tough result for the Huskies, though.
“We struggled right out of the gate with Sisters,” said Stutzer. “It was extremely cold, and we were very flat coming out of the gates on the defensive end.”
The fact that Sweet Home was missing starting defender Mason Lopez contributed to the Outlaw’s effective attacks on goal.
The team attempted to shore up its missing links on defense by moving usual offensive starters back to defend, which enabled Sisters “to really put a lot of pressure on us,” Stutzer said.
“They were coming at us the entire game with speed,” the coach said of the opponent.
Despite junior goalkeeper Evan Towry playing a “monster game” and making “phenomenal saves”, the goalie was “shot on relentlessly the entire game,” Stutzer said.
The match score was 5-0 at halftime, and the mercy rule was brought into effect when the Outlaws earned an eight goal differential by tacking on three more goals in the second half, ending the game 15 minutes before its final whistle would typically sound.
Sweet Home moves to 2-8 overall on the season and 0-6 in league play.
The Huskies have a busy close to the season after some earlier cancellation. They lost 2-0 to Cascade Monday evening, Oct. 18, at home, were to host Stayton Tuesday, Oct. 19, play at Cascade Saturday morning, Oct. 23, and then finish their season at home against Newport Monday, Oct. 25.