New Richmond boys soccer suffers first loss against River Falls

Talk about it

The rush of beating up on Middle Border Conference opponents was interrupted when the New Richmond boys soccer team ventured outside the conference for the first time this season.

The Tigers played their first non-conference game of the season last Friday. It resulted in the Tigers’ first loss, a 4-1 setback to the Wildcats.

Tiger coach Pete Melloy was succinct in his assessment of the Tigers’ play, saying the team “went through the motions” and needs to show more passion in its play.

“It was a good learning experience to get hammered. Now we’ll see what we’ve got,” Melloy said.

The Tigers played good in stretches on Friday, but they couldn’t always match the Wildcats’ intensity. River Falls scored the only goal of the first half at the 12-minute mark. The Wildcats added three goals in the second half, one on a penalty kick and one on a corner kick.

The lone Tiger goal came after River Falls had built a 3-0 lead. The goal was the product of smart ball movement. Senior Aaron Daul carried the ball up the middle until he was confronted by a wall of Wildcats. He then played the ball toward the left sideline to Joey Turnipseed. Turnipseed eluded one defender, then forwarded the ball to Eric Miller. Miller’s hard shot from 18 yards out struck a Wildcat defender and deflected into the goal.

Melloy said there were Tigers who played well on Friday, including Brad Brusewitz and Sam Giese in that group. The Tigers were without one of their leaders for the game, with senior defender Jake Taubman resting a sore knee.

Win at Baldwin

The Tigers got a blunt reminder last Thursday that a motivated opponent can be a threat at any time. Baldwin-Woodville had an injured player on the sideline and his presence had the Blackhawks playing at a high level. Thursday’s game was tied 0-0 at halftime. The Tigers were able to score four goals in the last 23 minutes of the game to win 4-0.

“Baldwin outworked us in the first half,” Melloy said. “We let them dictate the pace of play.”

In the second half the Tigers were instructed to “fight fire with fire” and match the Blackhawks’ intensity. The Tigers finally got the first goal of the game at the 57:23 mark. Miller fed a lead pass to Luke Landaal. Landaal cut between two hard-charging BW defenders and was able score off a breakaway.

Miller scored the next two goals, both off feeds from Daul.

The final goal was produced by a pair of sophomores. Josh Geigle made a move around a BW defender and rushed down the right side of the field toward the net. As the BW goalie came out to challenge him, Geigle fed a pass to Charlie L’Allier, who found an open area in front of the goal. L’Allier tapped in the pass for the fourth goal.

Brusewitz played the first half in goal for the Tigers with Rocco Ficociello playing the second half.

Rolling past Hayward

The second straight 11-1 win to start the season for the Tigers was accomplished last Tuesday at Hayward. The Tigers beat Osceola 11-1 in their season opener the previous week.

The Tigers built a 7-1 lead by halftime at Hayward. Miller scored three goals and assisted on two more, with all three of his goals coming in the first half. Landaal and Joey Turnipseed each scored twice. The Tigers scored their 11th goal in the 73rd minute, ending the game on the 10-goal rule.

One of the more athletic plays of the season was produced by Casey Turnipseed in this game. Jack Hop sent a corner kick toward the Hayward goal. One Tiger got a touch on the ball. Turnipseed did a full bicycle kick to take the ball that was well into the air and put a shot on goal.

“Although he didn’t score, an athletic play like that was a highlight,” Melloy said.

Another highlight was Geigle scoring his first career goal.

Schedule

The Tigers get to play a pair of home games this week. On Thursday the Tigers will host Amery and that’s followed by a game against Barron next Tuesday.

Tags: sports, tigers, soccer, prep