A challenging week

Lady Dogies fall short against Gering, Worland

The Lady Dogie soccer team had a challenging week last week, having to face the Lady Bulldogs in Gering on Tuesday, then opening up conference play against the No. 2-ranked Worland Lady Warriors at Schoonmaker Field on Saturday. Head coach Cami Willyard’s squad fought hard, but fell to Gering 1-7 and to Worland 0-6.

“It was kind of a rough week, but we knew it was going to be a tough one with who we had on the schedule,” Willyard admitted. “Gering is big and is always tough, and Worland is also strong this year.”

The Lady Dogies also had to play on Tuesday without Hailey Beastrom, the team’s center defensive mid-fielder, as the junior was ill at the beginning of the week.

“Hailey’s pretty crucial to our defensive scheme and she is our connection to our offense as well,” Willyard said. “She’s a pretty good play-maker for us, so we were missing a huge piece of our game without her.”

Despite feeling a little at a disadvantage heading into the contest, the Lady Dogies started strong and held the Lady Bulldogs scoreless for the first 20 minutes of the contest.

“I was very proud of and impressed with our girls,” Willyard said. “They got a few scary looks, but Christine [Swentesky] played great in the goal and our defense held pretty strong.”

Unfortunately, after Gering got their first goal the floodgates kind of opened up and the Lady Dogies found themselves down 4-0 at the half.

“There were a lot of good learning opportunities for our defense,” Willyard said. “It was also a great game for us to have those teaching moments, and was a great opportunity for me to get better as a coach. I hadn’t prepped anyone else to play Hailey’s position, so that was on me.”

The second half was better for Newcastle, but they still gave up three more goals in the first 20 minutes. Willyard then pulled Swentesky out of the goal with about 20 minutes to play, and the freshman with fresh legs lit a spark by scoring the Lady Dogies’ only goal of the game off a through ball from Leti Ayers.

“Christine recognized the opportunity, and kind of came out of nowhere, completely surprising the defense,” Willyard said. “It was really awesome. And then she almost got another goal, and she just gave us that spark.”

“The girls played hard and did their best especially when playing in different positions that they aren’t used to playing,” she continued. “It was a great non-conference game to figure some things out.”

The squad had a couple of days to work out some kinks before the Lady Warriors came to town on Saturday.

“We knew they would be tough since they are the number two team in the state,” Willyard said. “They are very disciplined and are very skilled at playing soccer.”

The Dogies gave up a goal in the seventh minute and in the 22nd minute of play, but then held the Lady Warriors out of the net for the remainder of the first half.

“I was so proud of them going into the half only down 0-2,” Willyard said. “We only allowed six shots on goal, so our defense just worked their tails off.”

The Lady Warriors got four more goals in the second half, but again Newcastle held them to only eight shots on goal in those last 40 minutes.

“I stressed all week to the girls that you have to be mentally in the game every second against a team like Worland,” the coach said. “You can’t let down because they will take advantage of every opportunity, and they did just that.”

Though Newcastle wasn’t able to get a shot on goal against the Lady Warriors, they did manage to get the ball into their offensive third of the pitch a few times which Willyard saw as a good sign of things to come.

“Going forward, I would like to see us create more opportunities,” Willyard said. “Overall, I was impressed with how we played and the fact that we are improving with every game.”

This week, the Lady Dogies will host Douglas at home on Thursday with kick-off scheduled for 6 p.m. They will be back on the road on Saturday as they head to Rawlins to take on the Lady Outlaws.