Your future, our focus
The Northwest College soccer teams defeated Northwest Tech last weekend by identical 2-1 final scores. The victory by the Trapper men came in overtime. Both teams also dropped 2-0 decisions to Barton Community College.
“We didn’t get off to a good start in either game,” said Rob Hill, head coach for the 18thranked Trapper men’s soccer team.
Northwest found itself in an early hole against Barton in a meeting of two teams that had attracted preseason attention from the national poll voters. The Trappers surrendered a goal just four minutes into the contest and found themselves playing catch-up virtually from the start. The quick strike was prompted by a bit of miscommunication by the Trappers’ defense.
“We didn’t read the play right,” said Hill. “It was a mistake on our part that they were able to score so easily there.”
The Trappers also had trouble adjusting to the pace of play in the early going, causing the team to be in pure defensive mode for much of the opening half.
“This was the real deal,” Hill said. “The game was played on turf, so it was naturally faster paced, but it was a bit of a shock to our guys with the speed and the physicality of the game. It was a shock to their system.”
The Trappers reached halftime down just 1-0, but were unable to generate many attacking opportunities. Barton added a second strike in the 67th minute of play after the Trappers failed to clear a ball on defense and Barton was able to react and drive it into the net.
“We’ve got to think and move quicker if we’re going to survive,” said Hill.
The Trapper men were also playing from behind against Northwest Tech. The Kansas school scored in the 10th minute on a play where Hill said the defense failed to react to the ball.
“We could have prevented it, but we didn’t clear the box and challenge the ball,” Hill said. “We really had a poor first half. We played very slow and got overrun at midfield.”
Hill said the team picked it up in the second half and began generating more offensive chances. After two or three unsuccessful attempts at goal, the Trappers netted their first score of the season as Dean Johnson reacted to a loose ball in the box following a Northwest corner kick.
Northwest was unable to add to its total though, sending the game into overtime. After one scoreless overtime period, the Trappers were able to end things four minutes into the second extra stanza. Freshman Gage Woodward slipped in and fed the ball back to classmate Jamie McMorrow for the game-winner.
“We went to an attacking formation in the overtime and we were able to get the game winner,” said Hill. “Overall, it really wasn’t a good performance for us. It’s nice to be 1-1 instead of 0-2, but there’s a long list of things we need to do. We got a good lesson.”
In women’s action, the Trappers were able to finish off Northwest Tech in regulation time. Coach Kaylin Olivas’ crew dominated possession throughout the contest.
“Probably the first 25 minutes of the first and second half, they didn’t even get the ball out of their defensive half,” said Olivas. “There were times they were playing all 11 players behind the ball because they just weren’t having any luck going forward against us. We did a really good job of supporting and defending and working as a unit when we had possession.”
Samiha Simao scored for Northwest in the 35th minute off a free kick to post the Trappers to a 1-0 lead. Simao struck again just before intermission, scoring on a header off an assist from Lindsey Nieters.
Northwest Tech’s only goal came in the 79th minute off a free kick. It was also the Kansas school’s only shot attempt of the game.
“They only had one, but they were able to put it on goal and score with it,” said Olivas. “I’d say we had possession for probably 85 percent of the game.”
The Trappers out-shot Northwest Tech by a 20-1 count in the game. But with only two of the Trappers’ shots finding the net, Olivas plans to focus some on getting her forwards to finish their chances.
“We’ve been concerned with our defensive play to this point, so now we’ll focus a bit more on diagonal runs and ways to create some space and scoring opportunities on offense,” said Olivas.
Against Barton, the Trapper women outshot the host school by an 8-7 count, but fell by a 2-0 final score.
“We had a couple of mishaps, one by our defense and the other by our keeper and they took advantage of both of them,” Olivas said. “Overall though, we played a solid weekend.”
Both Trapper soccer teams hit the road again this weekend for games at North Idaho College. The Trappers will also play neutral site games against Peninsula Community College while in Idaho.