Dogies drop home opener

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Dogies began April with their first home soccer game of 2021 on April 1 by hosting the Bison of Buffalo. The contest was scoreless until just before the end of the first half of play, however the Dogies ultimately fell by a score of 5-0.
Newcastle put together a competitive contest with relatively equal time of possession of the ball, however assistant coach Sally Hoover noted that a little more work on finishing shots on goal will allow the scoreboard to reflect the quality of play her team puts forth on the pitch.
“If we could have played the second half like we did the first, and if we could have finished, it would have been a much different result,” Hoover nodded. “After they scored the first goal, we kind of went on the defensive even though we were only down one. We backed off from being as aggressive in the second half, and I don’t know if it was a mind-set thing or what for sure, but we need to work on that.”
The Dogies went into the half only down 0-1, and they put together 12 shots on goal throughout the contest with four of them dangerous and right on target. However, the Bison defense was able to protect their goal to hold Newcastle off the scoreboard.
Dayton McFarland took a very well placed shot on goal that was on target and arced high over the goalie’s head. Unfortunately, the Buffalo keeper was able to just get a glove on the ball to knock it off course and send it over the top and out of bounds. 
“Dayton’s shot was so close, Cael [Holmes] had a really good shot on target, and Hayden [Overman] had a few pretty good ones,” Hoover declared. “We were out in front of them quite a few times and we just were a little off on our shots, so we will have to work on that. I felt like, toward the end we had a lot of frustration which may have contributed a bit to some of those shots that were a little off.”
Indeed, the Dogies ended up with three players on the receiving end of yellow cards and therefore, had to sit out a play because of that frustration.
McFarland had another close shot capitalizing on the Buffalo keeper having vacated the net.
“The ball was rolling into the net and I thought it was in, but one of their defenders was able to just get to the ball to save it,” Hoover frowned. “That’s also a little bit deflating when you have opportunities like that which are so close.”
Unfortunately, the Dogies also helped out the Bison’s score by knocking one into their own goal due to what Hoover described as a miscommunication and just a little loss of field awareness.
However, overall Hoover felt much better about her team’s performance on the day. Goalkeeper Dylan McFarland ended the contest with three saves, while defenders Avery Chick, Gavin Gray and Kalen Koch all had very good saves as well.
“It wasn’t like the Scottsbluff game,” Hoover insisted. “They didn’t get many opportunities on goal because we didn’t let them. Even their players at the end thought it should have been more like 2-2 and that the score didn’t reflect the game that was played. The guys are really showing promise which is awesome and we are looking to be competitive this year.” 
The Dogies have an action-packed week, although the Tuesday game against Gering, Neb., was cancelled. The the squad has two more home contests, however, against Riverton on Friday and Rawlins on Saturday. Games start at 6 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday.