Sweet Home couldn’t match Cottage Grove’s passing, losing 4-0 at the Husky soccer field Thursday.
Coach Karl Schmidtman’s Huskies the state’s ninth ranked team tightly through much of the first half, allowing them to score only once.
Cottage Grove scored two squad goals early in the third quarter to pressure the Huskies.
“We had several chances to take the lead but we just couldn’t score,” Coach Schmidtman said. “Once they went ahead 3-0, then it became an uphill battle for us.”
The Huskies have four league games remaining in the season and Coach Schmidtman said he is shooting for them to finished above .500 for the first time in the history of the sport at SHHS.
“We’re 5-3-1 right now and we’re fighting for a fourth state playoff berth,” Coach Schmidtman said.
Tuesday Sweet Home defeated Elmira 1-0, although the Huskies outshot their opponents 14-3.
“We were taking the shots but couldn’t get them in,” he said.
Mark Lewis scored the lone Husky goal with an assist from Heath Belknap.
Tuesday Sweet Home hosted Junction City, a three-time state championship team.
Thursday the Huskies travel to Cascade.
“We should be very competitive with Cascade,” Coach Schmidtman said.
The Huskies are healthy and upbeat about the season.
“We knew going into this season that we should do pretty well, but there’s talking about doing something and there’s doing it,” he said. “We’re happy about where we’re at. We have great senior leadership on this team.”