Conference struggles continue

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Lady Dogies didn’t end last week as they had hoped, given they dropped their contests against the Lady Bulldogs of Gering on Tuesday and the Lady Bearcats on Saturday by a score of 0-5. According to head coach Bryce Hoffman though the scores were the same, the games could not have been more different. 
“The two games were really opposite reflections of each other,” Hoffman began. “We played the best 60 minutes of soccer we’ve played all year against Gering, and then it was like we didn’t get off the bus against Douglas in the first half.”
Against the Lady Bulldogs, Newcastle came out determined to hang and held them to only one goal in the first half. Though the Lady Dogies were scoreless, they were able to put one into the back of the net that was called back.
“We went into the half only down 0-1, so we held them pretty well,” Hoffman nodded. “We felt pretty good and talked about how to prevent them from attacking us, and how to get some looks ourselves. When we came out, I really felt like we had them on the ropes and had them frustrated.”
Indeed, for the first 14 minutes of the second half the Lady Dogies dominated Gering, containing possession of the ball on their end of the field. Unfortunately, the Lady Bulldogs took advantage of an opportunity to counter, push the ball down the field and score a goal to go up 2-0. 
“After we had worked so hard, for them to get that quick goal really deflated us,” Hoffman sighed. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to recover from that mentally or physically.”
With about 20 minutes remaining, the game got away from the Lady Dogies as Gering used their depth to keep pushing while Newcastle ran out of gas, allowing three more goals by the Lady Bulldogs.
“I was proud of them after the game, because they fought hard and were doing some really good things,” Hoffman declared. “The hustle and the heart that they showed in that game is what we’ve been expecting to see from these girls all year, and the effort they put forth was awesome and it just seemed like something clicked and came together. The score certainly did not reflect what happened on the field.”
Winter weather midweek resulted in the postponement of the ladies’ Friday game against Buffalo, so the squad shifted their focus to their conference rematch against the Lady Bearcats in Douglas on Saturday. 
In their first go-around early in the season, Newcastle fell to the Lady Cats 2-3 so they were hoping to segue what worked in the Gering game in order to pick up their first conference win. Unfortunately, the team that put together the best 60 minutes of soccer played all year on Tuesday was not the one that took the field on Saturday.
“While the score didn’t reflect the game against Gering, the same could not be said about our game against Douglas,” Hoffman admitted. “They jumped on us right away in the third minute, again in the 19th, and twice more before half time and we were reeling as a team being down 0-4 going into the half.”
Given the nature of the sport, Hoffman admitted that he and his squad knew they were in a bad spot and that the game was out of reach at that point. However, since goals scored against a team come into play in a tie-breaker situation, it was imperative that the Lady Dogies do what they could to keep their situation from getting any worse.
“At the half we talked about being consistent, and that we weren’t doing the things we had done well against Gering,” Hoffman began. “It was a pretty tough conversation, but I think they responded well because we played much better in the second half.”
The Lady Dogies created some very good opportunities to score in the remaining 40 minutes of play, but the Lady Bearcats’ keeper stepped up and made great saves to keep Newcastle off the board. 
After dropping their second game of the week by a 5-0 score, Hoffman ruminated on what changes needed to be made to turn his team’s season around.
“From a coaching standpoint, I have got to do something to get the girls in a better state to play these conference games, because we are just playing really tight or flat and we’re just not getting things done,” he insisted. “We have to adjust the things we’re doing to see if they affect us in a positive way because the positive things we did against Gering just did not show up against Douglas, and I think Gering is the more talented team.”
The squad will have some time to address those issues as they have no contests this week. It is good timing for the break as their next game is against the Lady Blazers in Torrington next Tuesday. Both the Lady Dogies and the Lady Blazers are winless in the conference, so the stakes riding on the outcome of this contest are likely to be very high when it comes to postseason qualification.