Newcastle’s men wrap up their season
By:
Sonja Karp, NLJ Sports Editor
Photo by Alexis Barker/NLJ
Caden Esposito launches one toward the goal in the Dogies’ final match of the year, against the Douglas Bearcats.
After showing improvement throughout their season, the Dogies went into last week with a chance of making post-season play. However, in order to do that, they had to win both their games — against Buffalo on Tuesday, and Douglas on Thursday.
Although they came close and played both teams much better than they had previously, the Dogies lost in an overtime shootout against the Bison, then lost to Douglas 1-3, bringing their season to an end.
“We knew we had to win both to continue our season,” said head coach Sally Hoover. “The boys were pretty motivated, but they didn’t really have the urgency they needed. They didn’t act like it was do-or-die, so we will need to work on that.”
The first half was a battle, and players all appeared to be a little tentative, so the game went back and forth without much offensive action taking place. Therefore, the two teams were still tied at 0-0 at the half.
However, after a pretty uneventful 40 minutes of play, things ramped up in the second half.
In the 44th minute, Finn Gerlag made a back pass to Dylan McFarlin, who took a couple of dribbles before executing his signature shot from between the 18 and the half. He sailed it into the back of the net for the first score of the contest, giving the Dogies the 1-0 lead.
With 18 minutes remaining, Buffalo tied things up on a missed clear-ball on the Dogies’ defensive end.
“That one was kind of a bummer,” admitted Hoover. “It was just a bad clear that took a Buffalo bounce and they were there to finish it off.”
The score seemed to invigorate the Bison, while taking the wind out of the sails of the Newcastle team.
With seven minutes to play, another misplay by the Dogie defense resulted in one of the Dogies inadvertently scoring on his own goal to put the Bison up 2-1.
“We were pressuring, but they got around our defense,” Hoover explained. “Then our guy was facing the wrong direction and rather than clearing the ball, he kicked it right into our net.”
Gerlag made up for lost ground when he countered within two minutes by dribbling through defenders to tie it up, 2-2.
From there it was a battle of clearing the ball on both ends. The 2-2 tie at the end of regulation meant the Dogies were once again in a shootout situation. Unfortunately, the first three of Newcastle’s shots, though close, didn’t find the back of the net, while the shots of the Bison did, so they took the shootout win, 3-0.
With the Dogies out of contention for post-season play, Hoover admitted that perhaps her team was lacking a little bit of motivation for their final contest of the season against Douglas on Thursday.
“Just getting our one point for our tie wasn’t enough for us to make up the points we needed to go to state,” she said with a sigh. “But, we knew that if we could beat Douglas that we might also knock them out of contention for going to state, so the boys wanted to do that, but we were a little flat.”
The Bearcats got on the board first, scoring in the 30th and the 32nd minute of the contest.
With seven minutes to go in the first half, Gerlag took possession of the ball at the half, dribbled up the pitch, and got around a defender and the Bearcat keeper to find the back of the net.
Then, in the 38th minute, the ‘Cats scored their third and final goal of the game on a breakaway, sending the Dogies into half-time down 1-3.
Although there was not another goal scored in the remainder of the contest, Hoover was proud of her boys for finishing the game tough.
“They came out and they fought hard,” she said. “They never gave up, and they just played so much better than they did before when we lost 1-6. We did spend way too much time in our defensive third, but our defense did a great job of stopping them.”
With the season at an end, the Dogies will lose five players from this year’s roster. Gerlag will go home to the Netherlands while McFarlin, Caleb Hossfeld, Yestin Davis and Travis Harrington will graduate in a week.
“I told my junior boys that we will have to step up to fill those roles, and we have a few incoming freshmen, but looking to the future, the sixth and seventh grades have quite a few players,” she said. “We are going to be small, but hopefully we can get a few more out and get some touches on the ball this summer at open field.”
Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
After showing improvement throughout their season, the Dogies went into last week with a chance of making post-season play. However, in order to do that, they had to win both their games — against Buffalo on Tuesday, and Douglas on Thursday.
Although they came close and played both teams much better than they had previously, the Dogies lost in an overtime shootout against the Bison, then lost to Douglas 1-3, bringing their season to an end.
“We knew we had to win both to continue our season,” said head coach Sally Hoover. “The boys were pretty motivated, but they didn’t really have the urgency they needed. They didn’t act like it was do-or-die, so we will need to work on that.”
The first half was a battle, and players all appeared to be a little tentative, so the game went back and forth without much offensive action taking place. Therefore, the two teams were still tied at 0-0 at the half.
However, after a pretty uneventful 40 minutes of play, things ramped up in the second half.
In the 44th minute, Finn Gerlag made a back pass to Dylan McFarlin, who took a couple of dribbles before executing his signature shot from between the 18 and the half. He sailed it into the back of the net for the first score of the contest, giving the Dogies the 1-0 lead.
With 18 minutes remaining, Buffalo tied things up on a missed clear-ball on the Dogies’ defensive end.
“That one was kind of a bummer,” admitted Hoover. “It was just a bad clear that took a Buffalo bounce and they were there to finish it off.”
The score seemed to invigorate the Bison, while taking the wind out of the sails of the Newcastle team.
With seven minutes to play, another misplay by the Dogie defense resulted in one of the Dogies inadvertently scoring on his own goal to put the Bison up 2-1.
“We were pressuring, but they got around our defense,” Hoover explained. “Then our guy was facing the wrong direction and rather than clearing the ball, he kicked it right into our net.”
Gerlag made up for lost ground when he countered within two minutes by dribbling through defenders to tie it up, 2-2.
From there it was a battle of clearing the ball on both ends. The 2-2 tie at the end of regulation meant the Dogies were once again in a shootout situation. Unfortunately, the first three of Newcastle’s shots, though close, didn’t find the back of the net, while the shots of the Bison did, so they took the shootout win, 3-0.
With the Dogies out of contention for post-season play, Hoover admitted that perhaps her team was lacking a little bit of motivation for their final contest of the season against Douglas on Thursday.
“Just getting our one point for our tie wasn’t enough for us to make up the points we needed to go to state,” she said with a sigh. “But, we knew that if we could beat Douglas that we might also knock them out of contention for going to state, so the boys wanted to do that, but we were a little flat.”
The Bearcats got on the board first, scoring in the 30th and the 32nd minute of the contest.
With seven minutes to go in the first half, Gerlag took possession of the ball at the half, dribbled up the pitch, and got around a defender and the Bearcat keeper to find the back of the net.
Then, in the 38th minute, the ‘Cats scored their third and final goal of the game on a breakaway, sending the Dogies into half-time down 1-3.
Although there was not another goal scored in the remainder of the contest, Hoover was proud of her boys for finishing the game tough.
“They came out and they fought hard,” she said. “They never gave up, and they just played so much better than they did before when we lost 1-6. We did spend way too much time in our defensive third, but our defense did a great job of stopping them.”
With the season at an end, the Dogies will lose five players from this year’s roster. Gerlag will go home to the Netherlands while McFarlin, Caleb Hossfeld, Yestin Davis and Travis Harrington will graduate in a week.
“I told my junior boys that we will have to step up to fill those roles, and we have a few incoming freshmen, but looking to the future, the sixth and seventh grades have quite a few players,” she said. “We are going to be small,
but hopefully we can get a few more out and get some touches on the ball this summer at
open field.”
but hopefully we can get a few more out and get some touches on the ball this summer at
open field.”
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