Sweet Home boys soccer beat Elmira 4-1 at Husky Field, earning the program’s first victory since the fall of 2017.
“The kids were over the moon. They were elated to get the win,” Head Coach Eric Stutzer said.
Junior midfielder Caleb Christman scored a goal to put the Huskies up 1-0 going into halftime. Shortly into the second half, Elmira scored an equalizer to bring the game to 1-1.
But then the Husky offense kicked into gear, scoring three goals to run away with the game. Sophomore midfielder Colton Savri scored the Husky’s second and third goal, while sophomore midfielder Ben Tolman scored on a penalty kick to secure the 4-1 victory. Eric Stutzer said that freshman defender/midfielder Max Klumph had a good game and did well with his positioning on corners, nearly scoring on two occasions.
Stutzer called senior Joseph Hiemenez “a monster” on defense, who “shut a lot of things down on the right side.”
Sweet Home had 16 shots in the game, compared to eight for Elmira.
Junior goalkeeper Evan Towry made five “quality saves,” Stutzer said.
The Huskies dodged some bullets on defense, as Elmira shots bounced off the crossbar on three separate occasion.
“The first couple of minutes of the game were pretty scary,” Stutzer said. “Elmira shot the ball off the crossbar twice within the first five minutes. But then we hunkered down.”
Stutzer said that his team struggled on defense at points in the game, partly because midfielders weren’t getting back, leaving big gaps for Elmira to exploit.
Sweet Home starts league play next week at Philomath, at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 16.
“We compete in one of the toughest leagues in the state,” Stutzer said, noting that a lot of the teams in Sweet Home’s 4A-3 Oregon West Conference have state playoff experience.
“It will be interesting moving forward,” he said. “We’re starting to get more experience, but we have a really shallow bench, so we have to focus on staying healthy and playing together as a team. If we do that, we might be able to sneak some wins in league this year.”
“Having this win gives us a sense of confidence that we can carry into league play,” he said.