Northwest is defeated by Rockhurst, 0-1, in the first game of the season
Boys varsity soccer kicked off their season with an away game against Rockhurst Sept. 15, ending in a 0-1 loss.
Senior Aidan Knauth runs to stop a breakaway, Sept. 15.
September 16, 2020
Before the game, head coach Brian Pollack said he challenged his players to win the first 10 minutes of the game. With it being the team’s first game of the season, he said he realized the team needed to come out of the gates with a lot of intensity to compete with a team that was already playing in their sixth game of the season.
“I told my players going into the game to win the first 10 minutes,” Pollack said. “I feel like we did just that and dominated play at the beginning of the game, so I couldn’t really ask for a better first game out of them.”
Senior captain Luke Rahto said he was impressed with how the team played and how prepared they were after one week of practice.
“I feel like for our first game it went pretty well. We were well conditioned and we played hard, but obviously the outcome wasn’t what we wanted,” Rahto said. “[Rockhurst] has played more games than us and they’re always a pretty good team so I feel like we did a good job keeping it close the whole way.”
In the second half, BVNW had multiple scoring opportunities on corner kicks. Pollack said it was disappointing to not score in those situations, but people were in the right place at the right time.
“Towards the end of the game we had a lot of opportunities to score, especially on corners and free kicks, so it was very unfortunate that we were unable to capitalize,” Pollack said. “We did a much better job of keeping the ball on their half [of the field] after halftime, so that is encouraging moving forward.”
Agreeing with Pollack, Rahto said the team had unlucky plays on both sides of the ball and believes the team could have scored two or three goals at the end of the second half.
“We had a lot of opportunities to score towards the end of the game, especially on corner kicks,” Rahto said. “Obviously the outcome wasn’t what we wanted, but they had a good shot early in the second half and we just couldn’t get the ball in the goal.”
Their next game is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 17 at the DAC, where they will take on Saint Thomas Aquinas.
