Somerset soccer still striving for first victory of season

• Laura Wells

Somerset senior Laura Wells steers the ball upfield during a recent Spartan game.

Talk about it

While the losses have continued to mount for the Somerset girls soccer team, Spartan coach Erin Wilson insists that the team has remained positive and intent on turning the season around.

Wilson said she thought this week presented excellent opportunities for the Spartans to earn some wins. They played at New Richmond on Tuesday, a team they tied in the first half of the Middle Border Conference season. She said this Thursday’s home game against Barron is another strong possibility for a win. The Spartans will be celebrating Senior Day and Parents Day before the Barron game.

Wilson has been confounded by the Spartans’ tendency to play to the level of their competition, or just under, this season. That was evident again on Saturday, when the Spartans faced two Eau Claire schools in their home quad tournament. The Spartans lost to Eau Claire Regis, a top shelf program, 2-0. The Spartans then faced Division 1 Eau Claire North from the Big Rivers Conference. The Spartans had the game tied 1-1 and trailed 2-1 at halftime. North was able to pull away late in the game for a 5-1 win, but Wilson was pleased with the way the Spartans competed in the game that got quite physical.

“It took a little of Eau Claire North shoving them around to get them fired up,” Wilson said. “It was a different level of soccer.”

Somerset’s goal against North came on a direct kick. Senior Paige Wagner took the kick, delivering it to the front of the goal. Mallory Conrad, who was incorrectly listed by her older sister’s name in last week’s story, headed Wagner’s pass into the net for the goal.

The Spartans lost a pair of Middle Border Conference games last week, both by 5-1 scores. One player scored four goals for Amery in last Thursday’s game on the Warriors’ turf. Wilson said the Spartans have struggled all season with teams that run a “kick and run” style of booting the ball deep downfield in an effort to get breakaways.

Somerset’s goal was scored by Lisa O’Connor, who put away a rebound off an initial shot from Laura Wells.

Last Tuesday the Spartans hosted another team of Spartans from Superior. Superior scored twice in the first 10 minutes of the game. Somerset was able to get its goal on an unassisted effort from Cassie Schmidt at the 25:52 mark. Schmidt fired a shot that struck the far goal post and glanced into the goal.

Somerset’s next two games will be played at home. After facing Barron on Friday, the Spartans will host another Big Rivers team next Monday, when Menomonie’s girls visit.

Tags: sports, somerset, soccer, prep