Wildcats Successful in First Conference Soccer Match

It was not pretty soccer, but for the boys’ soccer team, it was good enough. The Wildcats defeated Brookfield Academy 2-0 in a Midwest Classic Conference North contest at USM Wednesday night.

At times the game resembled kickball. USM head coach Jason Rienzi said, “We were trying to do too much. We just needed to do the simple things.”

The Wildcats scored one goal early and one goal late. Their first came at 7:29. USM junior Spencer Haas got the ball and sprinted with it down the left side. Haas pushed it past a slide tackle by a Knight defender just inside the BA penalty area. Haas launched a shot along the ground. It eluded BA’s senior goalie Lanre Olanyian and headed for the far post. USM’s Josh Baker rushed to it and guided it into the net.

USM’s next goal game in the last minute. Once again Haas got the ball on the left. This time he passed it ahead to sophomore Isaac Schlenker. Schlenker outwitted a defender and fired a shot that went just inside the far post to make the score 2-0 at 79 minutes.

In the game Olanyian made 11 saves and USM’s sophomore goalkeeper Jack Wells stopped seven. Each goalie made a spectacular save in the second half. In the 58th minute Wells came out to cut the angle on a BA breakaway and caught the ensuing shot to prevent a goal. In the 66th minute Olanyian leaped to push a high shot over the cross bar to prevent a USM goal.

BA is now 2-2 overall and 0-1 in the conference. USM is 4-1-2 and 1-0 in conference play. The Wildcats travel to Big Foot for a tournament on Saturday. Their first game is scheduled to commence at 10 a.m.