Sweet Home boys soccer’s league schedule got off to a rough start on Sept. 22, as the Huskies faced off against undefeated and No. 4 ranked Stayton.
The No. 2-ranked and undefeated Eagles beat Sweet Home 9-1 as the game was called 10 minutes into the second half when Stayton secured an eight-point lead.
“We’ve got to understand that we’re in a tough league, and we’ve got to be ready to play every game,” Head Coach Eric Stutzer said. “I think that we came out really flat and we were not ready to play. So hopefully, we learned that lesson and we’ll be ready to play next time.”
He noted that “We started out super-duper flat,” but that “Toward the end of the half, we righted the ship a little bit.”
The Huskies’ lone goal came toward the end of the first half, when forward Colton Savri scored on an assist from midfielder Landon Savri, connecting on a shot from about 20 yards out on the right side.
“It was on their starting keeper,” Stutzer said of the goal. “It was not their backup keeper and it was not their JV team. So it was really nice to be able to get into the attacking third. That’s a huge positive for us.”
Stutzer took even more positives from the loss.
“As short as the game was, in the past we haven’t done very well at getting into the attacking third against Stayton, but we had at least five opportunities the other night where we got into the attacking third, and one of those we capitalized on.”
The Huskies had five shots on goal, which Stutzer called “a big step in the right direction, compared to one if we were even lucky a year ago, between two games.”
Sweet Home (3-2) hosts Cascade (3-2) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 27, and then travels to Newport (3-1-1) for a game at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 29.