Soccer team begins season with a win, loss

The Custer High School soccer team got its season underway with a trip to East River last week, defeating Mitchell Christian 4-0 last Friday and falling 4-3 to Harrisburg on Saturday.

In the game against Christian, Custer took an early lead when a Christian defender had an intentional handball in the box, giving the Wildcats a penalty kick. Senior striker Luke Roddy took the kick and scored the opening goal. It was the only goal of the first half.

Seven minutes into the second half, Trevor Schyvers had a nice pass to Roddy, who put the ball away for his second goal. Five minutes later, Roddy took the ball through a crowd of players and scored again to complete his hat trick. The ’Cats’ fourth goal came in the 67th minute, when Tyler Young scored off a cross from Roddy.

The Wildcats outshot their hosts 25-9 in the game, while new Custer goalie Tanner Eiesland made seven stops to preserve the shutout.

“The defense did a really good job, and the teamwork, passing and possession in the second half, left Chistian chasing the ball a lot,” head coach Craig Black said. “It was really hot. Christian had to carry one of their players off, as he cramped badly in the heat.”

In Harrisburg, the Wildcats took on the team they defeated a year ago in the consolation game at the state tournament. It looked good for Custer early, as Roddy had a breakaway and went one-on-one with the Harrisburg goalie, who made a great save on Roddy’s shot. Shortly thereafter, Harrisburg hit a through ball to their first team all-state performer Harris Harric, who outraced the Custer defense and put away a shot to make the game 1-0.

Custer tied the game 20 minutes later when Roddy crossed the ball to David Hernandez on a direct kick, and Hernandez redirected the kick into the lower left corner for the goal. Harrisburg would score right before the half, however, to go up 2-1 at the break.

Another Herric goal 25 minutes into the second half put Harrisburg up 3-1, but Custer battled back in the 78th minute when Roddy took a free kick and sent it into the back of the net to cut the Harrisburg advantage to 3-2. However, six minutes later, Herric was back at it, making Custer pay for a defensive mistake and scoring his third goal of the game to make the score 4-2.

The Wildcats had one more goal in them, when Byron Dahlstrom took a long, bending direct kick and sent it just over the tips of the goalkeeper’s fingers and into the back of the next. There were plenty of scrambles in the last five minutes of the game, but the Wildcats were unable to find the tying goal.

Eiesland made 11 saves in the game, receiving defensive help from Alex Kopp, Alex Heaton, Soren Wahlstrom and Dahlstrom.

“The defense will continue to get very solid this year, and will become one of our strengths,” Black said. “Our possession and finishing will only get better as well. It was a good test for us.”

The Wildcats have a pair of games this week, beginning with a road match at St. Thomas More Aug. 26. That game begins at 6 p.m. Saturday the team will make its home debut, when it hosts Freeman Academy for a 1 p.m. game.