Still searching for its first league win, the Sweet Home boys soccer team lost two lopsided contests on the road last week, falling to Stayton 12-0 on Oct. 11 and Cascade 7-0 on Oct. 13.
The losses moved Sweet Home to 3-8 overall on the season.
Against No. 2-ranked Stayton (9-0-2), Sweet Home Head Coach Eric Stutzer said, “We had a lot of young guys in the game. Our back line has not been the same since we played East Linn, and we’ve had two and three seniors out most of the games, which makes a big difference.
“So we’ve been shuffling freshmen around, and all of that inexperience, when you go against a team the caliber of Stayton, does not bode well.”
He noted that the injured players have been defender Mason Lopez, midfielder Chris Christman, and midfielder Cooper McKinnon.
“We have a lot of kids that have been sick too,” Stutzer said. “So we’ve been pretty depleted.” Stayton scored all 12 of its goals before halftime, at which point the match was called.
Against Cascade, ranked 11th (6-4-1), Sweet Home failed to score again, while the Cougars scored two goals in the first half and five in the second.
“In the Cascade game we came out and played a lot better,” Stutzer said. “But again, we had a bunch of guys dinged up. We had a number of freshmen starting that normally wouldn’t be starting.”
“I felt like we played them pretty well until the second half, when we let a few go by that we probably shouldn’t have,” the coach said. “But all in all, I felt like we were better in the defensive third of the field, and the midfield third was a little bit better.”
Sweet Home gave up two penalty kicks in the game. “We’ve got to make sure that we’re doing what we need to do, and not giving up unnecessary fouls,” Stutzer said.
He also noted that “There was a couple opportunities that we had in the attacking third that we messed up, that really should have been goals.”
He said that the game was “some improvement from where we’ve been at, especially with some of our younger guys, but we still have a long way to go with improving.”
This week, the Huskies square off against Newport (4-3-4) at home at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 18. They then hit the road to play at No. 1 Philomath (8-0-2) at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 20.
The boys will finish by hosting North Marion on Oct. 25.