K.H.S. Boys’ Soccer Underclassmen Step Up

KHS BOYS SOCCER

At Waupun

A breezy night in Waupun on Tuesday, Sept. 24 saw the Kewaskum boys soccer team get a much needed away, conference victory.

Struggling on the road this season, Kewaskum needed to beat the Waupun Warriors to keep their slim conference title chances alive.

Kewaskum has proven to be a formidable group at the friendly confines of Doc Mitchell stadium but once they travel from the comforts of home, they have struggled mightily.

Kewaskum came out firing again. Not as wildly as they did in their previous contest with Campbellsport, but early chances were plentiful.

Ten minutes in, Charlie Gambino got the Indians on the scoreboard with a great individual effort that was set up by Luciano Olla. Gambino received the service from Olla, drove in from his familiar left wing position, made a simple but highly effective move around Waupun’s center back and blasted a low shot right under a helpless goalkeeper.

The Indians continued to put pressure on the home side with a truly dominant performance in the midfield. Waupun, who has historically liked to attack and counter attack through the middle of the field, were unable to get things moving due to the ever present presence of the Kewaskum midfielders, Eli Steinbauer, Ali Olla, Mac Hasse, and Luciano Olla, who was able to score the next two of Kewaskum’s goals and assist on the first one.

A truly special performance from the junior midfielder in the middle of the pitch. His command of the game and ability to possess and direct play through his teammates were on full display. His first goal came off a throw-in from freshman left back Blake Staral who immediately got the ball back from Olla and then played a nice giveand-go to return it. Luc, as the team calls him, saw the Waupun defense was in front of him, which he took full advantage of, and blasted a near-post strike past a diving goalie.

His second had to wait until the second half, and this one was all him. A turnover near half field saw Luc collect the ball and dribble unchallenged directly into the Warrior’s penalty area where he made a deft little side step to the left and with his left foot caught just enough of the ball to roll it behind a sliding keeper that couldn’t quite get a wide enough splits to stop it.

At 3-0 and a little more than ten minutes left, Kewaskum had the game well in hand and continued to control all aspects.

Defensively, the Indians didn’t let one shot on target in the second half. The back line of David Brown, Will Haydin, Oliver Grover, and Braydin Gell had the Warriors shut down.

Even when substitutes Blake Staral, who had an assist on the night, Tony Kern, who also had an assist on the night, Bryce Wildt and Ryan Perales saw some action, Waupun was unable to generate anything offensively. That assist from Kern came with roughly eight minutes left in the game when he won the ball out of the air and directed it to Mac Hasse who dribbled across the middle of the field and then cut back a 20-yard shot that rang up against the inside of the far post for the final touches on a complete performance from See KHS SOCCER page 18 KHS SOCCER

from page 12 Kewaskum.

The team got a much deserved road victory that even the Waupun coach commented on with how much confidence our guys played with. With more overall and complete performances like that we can make a good run to the end of the season and into the playoffs

At Sheboygan

Yet, another tough road trip for the Kewaskum Indians’ boys soccer team.

The day started out rough as some travel miscommunication had the team arriving late, and due to referees double booking a short warm up period, it really seemed to show early on in the game.

Kewaskum started out decently controlling possession for the first eight or 10 minutes of the game but then seemed to run low on energy and effort. Sheboygan Christian slowly began to take over the game and hold the ball down in the Indians’ half of the field. Kewaskum was able to do just enough to hold the attack at bay and get the ball cleared out, but barely. When it did get cleared, there were heavy legs chasing it.

This allowed the Eagles to reload and mount more attacks, which continued to penetrate deeper into the Kewaskum defensive third. Eventually, the defensive unit became too overwhelmed and relented the first goal of the day.

It did not get better from there as frustration from being behind and a sluggish start seemingly put more weight on the shoulders of the visiting Indians. A little while later, the Eagles were able to convert a second goal off a deflection from an excellent save from senior goalkeeper Riley Kuehl, right to a waiting Eagle striker who hammered it into the net.

The confidence from Tuesday night seemingly had been completely sucked out of the team and were continuing to face relentless attacks from the hosts. The defense continued to do just enough to stop the onslaught until a call inside the penalty area awarded Sheboygan Christian a penalty kick with just two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the half, which was converted.

The time mercifully ran out on an uninspired first half with the Indians staring at a 0-3 halftime deficit.

When this team leans on each other and comes together, they can be and are resilient, and eight minutes into the second half, they got a goal to give the home team something to worry about. The line judge on the team side even commented to the Kewaskum coach that this looks like a totally different team. Something woke them up. And whatever they said to each other at halftime that did wake them up was only fueled by Luciano Olla’s set piece delivery that landed at the feet of Oliver Grover who touched the ball across the face of the goal that saw a crashing Tyler Kehres convert. Three to one and some of that Kewaskum confidence building.

With Sheboygan Christian falling into a bit of a defensive shell that allowed Kewaskum to generate and continue to generate attacks, a number of shots directed on target were continually handled or pushed aside by the Eagles’ goalkeeper and defense.

Things were getting interesting and spirited with a number of second half fouls and yellow cards from both teams, a couple of which gave Sheboygan Christian some decent looks at direct free kicks, all of which were handled well by the Kewaskum defense. The majority of the second half seemed to be going the Indians way and being played on the attacking side of the field, even after one of those yellow cards, referred to earlier, was a second to one of the Kewaskum midfielders, resulting in a red card dismissal.

The team though continued to rally and even down a man, had some opportunities late in the contest. Particularly, a long cross that saw Eli Steinbauer elevate in the penalty area and redirect the ball with a great header that was met with a diving save from the opposing goalie. That felt like the last desperate chance to get into a position to get a favorable result. The time eventually hit 80 minutes and ran out on the comeback attempt.

It was a big loss and a bigger loss in regards to the ejection of a key component that will see him have to sit for the conference matchup on Tuesday, Oct. 1.

Vs Ripon

A disappointing night in many ways for the Indians on the first day of October against their conference rivals, the Ripon Tigers.

After a little less than a week full of team drama that saw a number of the Kewaskum starters suspended for the entire first half of their game with the visiting Tigers, a count of seven starters suspended for the first half and a key defensive midfield starter suspended for the entire game due to receiving a red card in the Indians’ previous game, Kewaskum was left with a makeshift starting lineup to begin the game.

The entire front of the formation, the offensive or attacking positions for the Indians, had new starters fill roles that were possibly in positions new to them and definitely in a pressure situation they were not expecting. Led by newly appointed captain Tyler Kehres, it was going to be a potentially tough task to generate a consistent attack against the East Central Conference leading Ripon Tigers.

The back of the formation, or the defensive positions, had some familiar faces like junior defenseman Bryce Wildt, and starters Braydin Gell, and another newly appointed captain, Will Haydin, who were charged with keeping the visitors out of the home team’s goal.

The first 20 minutes went by with a pretty relentless onslaught from Ripon, but with the experienced players and the additional player that needed to step up like fullback Ryan Perales, wings Evan Daley and Tony Kern, and goalie Elijah Mays, the Indians looked to be frustrating the Tigers.

In a defensive mindset, it really proved difficult to get the ball into the opposing team’s half of the pitch. Indians’ midfielders Ali Olla, AJ Droese, and defender Blake Staral rounded out the starting lineup that held strong through the first quarter of the game.

That stronghold stumbled at the 22nd minute when an extremely good individual effort, that had one of the Ripon center backs join the attack, was able to slice through the Indians’ defense and sneak one just under the diving goalkeeper.

Kewaskum was still remaining very optimistic as the young lineup exceeded expectations, including beginning to move the ball up the field and even sending a dangerous cross across the face of the goal by Evan Daley on one of the few advances the Indians were able to generate. Unfortunately, with the new found confidence, the Indians found themselves a bit too far spread out and gave up another goal just five-and-a-half minutes later.

This is where things could have really turned bad for the team if they had gotten down on themselves but they did not.

Continuing to drop back and defend, Ripon was frustrated repeatedly and could not muster another goal. Substituting regularly with newly promoted varsity players Cam Kopf, Cam Legate, Joel Maas, and Dennis Goetzinger, who fulfilled their roles perfectly, a 0-2 halftime deficit gave the team just the life they needed to mount a comeback in the second half.

The fresh legged regular starters came out of the second half gate ready to get back into the competition. They probably should have had a bunch of early opportunities that just could not be redirected on target. With the first five minutes of the half seemingly all on the Ripon side, there was the feeling of not if the Indians would score but when.

Ripon guarded against the pressure by sitting back a bit defensively and using big clears up to their primary striker who was already on the score sheet from the first half. Well, that goal came, just to the wrong side as one of those clearances made its way to a charging attacker who blew right through everyone on the Kewaskum team and made easy work of slotting his second goal into the net.

Two-nothing down was one thing but three down proved to be too much of a task. Kewaskum was able to get an indirect free kick in the 64th minute that sophomore midfielder Ali Olla and junior midfielder Mac Hasse crafted a nifty little sequence that ended with a laser guided strike from Mr. Hasse that hit the inside of the far post and eventually into the back of the net. As time dwindled, more changes to formation and tactics to get additional opportunities with the hope of getting a result in the game passed one by one until the clock was ready at 80:00 and the final whistle blew.

As I stated at the outset, it was disappointing on many levels. Sure, the loss to a conference foe stings, and the first time this year with two losses in a row, but the biggest disappointment is the fact that with a win, the Indians still would have been in the running for a share of the final year of the East Central Conference title.

The loss basically eliminates Kewaskum from that honor. Every game, win or lose, there are See

page 19 KHS SOCCER

from page 18 lessons learned, and this game was no different. There definitely were some hidden or buried gems found in the JV and varsity substitute players who stepped up and held this program together when called upon. Not only does the future look bright but with the last quarter of the schedule remaining, the team is looking to make some noise from here on out.

Vs Freedom

Two straight losses had the Kewaskum boys soccer team playing angry on Thursday, the third of October, not in a reckless way but with a fire that maybe hasn’t been there this season, yet. Poor visiting Freedom had to pay the price.

On a cool, parents appreciation night, the Indians were looking to bounce back on the winning train.

Bounce back they did and it didn’t take long. A foul right in front of Freedom’s penalty area saw junior Mac Hasse blast a shot so hard, that from the team benches side it almost looked like it didn’t go in. It most certainly did. Six minutes later, another goal was scored by crashing senior captain Tyler Kehres on a ball that was delivered right in front of the Irish keeper.

Relentless pressure from the wingers on each side of the field for the Indians had possession predominantly played on the visitor’s side of the pitch. Excellent passing sequences had the opposing team chasing and wearing themselves out trying to track down the ball. All that chasing must have worn them out because 20 minutes after the second goal another was slotted home by sophomore attacker Colton Rabe, assisted from an awesome effort by winger Eli Steinbauer.

Steinbauer terrorized the left side of the Irish defense for the entire first half, winning challenge after challenge and delivering dangerous services time and again.

Ninety seconds later, Luciano Olla recovered a brief and rare first half turnover right at the edge of Freedom’s penalty area, turned to the middle of the field and rolled it past a keeper who guessed the wrong way.

It wasn’t all sunshine and roses for the first half. With all the success being experienced from the home team, there was a little loss of concentration and defensive focus that allowed the visitors to get on the score sheet five-and-a-half minutes before halftime, a wake up call to the Indians that this thing wasn’t over yet.

Speaking of roses, at halftime, it was time to honor the parents of the young men of the Kewaskum soccer team. Another job well done by our announcer Jim Magnus announcing the parents of the players whose involvement keeps the program alive and growing. Thank you parents!

The second half proved more dominating than the first with goals eight, 10, 18, and 32 minutes in with absolutely no answer from the opposing side. And when I mean no answer, I mean no answer, not even a shot in the second half. Outside full backs David Brown and Braydin Gell are playing some of their best soccer of the season and it definitely was on display Thursday night.

Oliver Grover and Will Haydin locked down the middle of the field and the midfield presence of Mac Hasse, and the Olla brothers, Luciano and Ali, Freedom had no options or opportunities.

Grover also pushed up to try to increase the lead during Kewaskum corner kicks and was rewarded by jamming home a shot that, after rattling around in the box, found its way onto his right foot. After a quick hitting counter attack that saw Hasse, Steinbauer and Rabe working as a trio got the ball down deep into Freedom’s defensive third. A cross that, again, was not sufficiently cleared by the Freedom defense found its way to Rabe, who after a nifty little touch around a defenseman, chipped the keeper for his second goal of the day.

Charlie Gambino wins the award for ugliest goal of the season so far with what he did all day, exploiting the outside of the Irish defense and with his speed got another fast break, one-on-one opportunity with the keeper who seemingly saved it. However, when he landed on the ground, the ball popped out from underneath him and trickled into the goal. Not the prettiest of goals but it counts.

The final goal of the game was maybe the prettiest goal of the season as Mac Hasse, on a pass from Luciano Olla, again torched one from about 30 yards out that was tailing away from Freedom’s goalkeeper who just couldn’t stretch long enough to redirect it.

An 8-1 drubbing of Freedom was hopefully just the rebound this team needed to get on the right track.

A big week to follow as three road games, Berlin, Madison La Follette, and Germantown have some big competition to head into. A great prep week for the upcoming state playoffs.