The Huskies have been battling the numbers game in both the boys and the girls programs all year. And it didn’t get any easier last week as both squads were unable to overcome the limitations and suffered three losses each and then canceled their Saturday game against Sheldon.
In the first game of the week, Corvallis defeated the Sweet Home boys 11-8. Larry Coulter and Jeff Stratman each scored three goals and Sean Martin added the other two. The girls had their best game of the year against the Spartans, though they lost 11-9. Coach Rene Kirkland said their improved passing kept them in the game the whole way.
“They were getting the ball moved around a little bit to the best open spot,” she said.
In a very even scoring attack, Katie Jones, Amber Larsen, Krystle Streight, and Nichole Martin each had two goals and Amber Erickson scored her first goal of the year.
On Wednesday, the boys had their best match of the week against North Eugene. In the first quarter, the Huskies led 4-1 until North made some adjustments on Stratman in the hole position and finally cranked it up to win 17-9. However, Sweet Home only scored on them twice in their previous meeting. The defense by Sean Martin on their leading scorer sparked the Husky effort, as he limited him to 5 goals instead of the 9 he scored in the last game. But it was the loss of one of their two top scorers, Larry Coulter, that was the biggest blow. With three minutes to go, Coulter broke his finger and his season came to an end. Coulter and Stratman each had 4 goals and Matt Maloney had the other.
The Highlanders, the leading girls team in the league, stopped the Huskies cold, 15-1. Only Amber Larsen found the net in that game. However, the girls came back well against Albany on Friday and just had fun, according to Kirkland. Neither team could field a full squad so it ended up being a scrimmage, which Albany won 8-6. Streight led all scorers with 3 goals. Katie Jones, who had a strong defensive game, scored a goal also. Liz Andersen had 12 blocks as the goalie before she went on to tend the goal in the boys game as well.
The boys lost to Albany, playing short-handed in the field as Nichole Martin filled one of the spots on their team and came away with two steals. Stratman had 4 of the 6 goals with Sean Martin and Maloney rounding out the scoring.
The team had their final game of the year at Lebanon on Tuesday.