Somerset soccer gets out to 3-0 start in Middle Border Conference

• Thomas Bauer

Somerset’s Thomas Bauer (7) leads a charge down the field in the Spartans’ win over Baldwin-Woodville last week.

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The Middle Border Conference soccer race has a new contender.

The Somerset boys climbed to 3-0 in the 2012 MBC standings by defeating Baldwin-Woodville and Cumberland last week. The Spartans topped Hayward the previous week.

The win against Baldwin-Woodville came on the Spartans field last Tuesday, by a 6-0 score. The shutout was the second straight for the Spartans, the first two shutouts in team history.

Sophomore Logan Wiederin scored the first goal of Tuesday’s game. He knocked in a rebound when the Blackhawk goalie couldn’t cleanly handle a shot from Jon Bucklew in the 26th minute of the game.

Gavin Meader scored four minutes later. Jeremy Bucklew sent a lead pass to Meader, who was working up the left edge of the field. Meader took a sharp-angled shot from 25 yards out. The B-W keeper got his hands on the high shot, but the ball deflected off his hands and into the net.

The rest of the Spartan scoring came off the feet of Jon Bucklew. He scored off an assist from Rhys Linke in the 33rd minute. He scored three more goals in the second half, with Wiederin assisting on all three goals.

After going 26 minutes without scoring against Baldwin-Woodville, the Spartans wanted to get out to a better start in Thursday’s game at Cumberland. The Spartans achieved that goal en route to their 7-2 win over the Beavers.

Meader got the scoring started, using a header to drive the ball into the net at the 7:52 mark. The Spartans scored again 37 seconds later. J.T. Karis took a shot that deflected away from the Cumberland keeper. As it rolled across the goalie box, Jon Bucklew tapped the ball into the net.

The Spartans gave up their first goal in 135 minutes of action a few minutes later. A rare defensive mistake by the Spartans opened the field up for a Cumberland breakaway and the Beavers were able to score off the chance.

That goal was a minor setback. The Spartans scored four minutes later, with Jon Bucklew getting the goal after receiving a crossing pass from Josh Lee. The lead grew to 4-1 in the 23rd minute. Senior Nate Olin made a long throw-in to Meader, who was able to get past the Cumberland defense for the goal.

“Nate is a huge benefit because he can throw the ball 40 yards,” said Somerset coach Bill Roll.

In the second half Somerset got two more goals from Jon Bucklew and another from Meader. Cumberland scored its second goal with two seconds left in the game.

The MBC schedule continues for the Spartans this Friday when they play at Barron. The Spartans face a challenging non-conference game next Tuesday when they play at Forest Lake, Minn.

Tags: sports, somerset, spartans, soccer, prep