Dogies have rough week

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
It was a bit of a rough go over the weekend for the Dogies as they dropped two conference games at home against Riverton on Friday and Rawlins on Saturday. In both contests, the Dogies continued their trend of playing solidly in the first half, then faltering in the second. 
“I felt like we were just disjointed against Riverton, and it felt like we weren’t connecting as a team,” assistant coach Sally Hoover mused. “There were open passes but we weren’t using them and we were moving well and defending well, but we just couldn’t put anything together on offense.” 
Riverton got on the board with their first goal late in the first half, so the Dogies went into the break only down 1-0. However, a lack of communication on offense in the second half was detrimental to the Dogies and the Wolverines capitalized on that to extend their lead to 6-0 by the end of the contest. 
“We had some good opportunities regarding shots on goal, but Riverton had possession of the ball for a good part of the contest,” admitted head coach Elyse Dickey. “Our defense did a pretty good job considering they were under pressure for much of the game.”
Unfortunately, Dylan McFarland, the team’s starting goalie, suffered an injury last weekend which has him sidelined so Heath Henkle got the call to step into that vital position for the first time at the varsity level. Despite his rookie status, Henkle stacked up 13 saves on the day.
“Heath did a really good job for this being his first weekend playing varsity,” Dickey said. “He communicated really well, which was awesome, and I was impressed with him overall.”
In addition to Henkle’s saves, Avery Chick and Gavin Gray each contributed three in their role as the defensive back line.
The Dogies were able to get off seven shots on goal and spread around those taking the shots which should bode well going forward. Cael Holmes, Dayton McFarland, Ezra Anderson and Hayden Overman each had opportunities but couldn’t find the back of the net.
Against Rawlins on Saturday, the Dogies succumbed 1-7, however a positive note was that they were able to score their first goal of the season.
“One thing that I am really liking right now is that the guys are listening and making adjustments to their game,” Dickey noted. “We talked to them about movement off the ball and our communication issues after the game on Friday, and both of those looked better against Rawlins on Saturday.”
The Outlaws presented a challenge of speed which the Dogies struggled to contain, however the defense did a good job of holding the line and picked up quite a few offsides calls with which Dickey was pleased.
The Dogies were able to keep Rawlins off the board for the first 20 minutes of play and went into the half down 0-2.
“We were pretty competitive, but after their first goal, we started to hang back and play really defensively rather than being aggressive on offense,” Hoover explained. “We’ve had a tendency to do that this year, so we need to get that figured out.” 
The Dogie defense was once again under a great deal of pressure in the second half, and the Wolverines capitalized on opportunities to score three goals in quick succession about 10 minutes into it, extending their lead to 7-0 as time ticked away.
Henkle finished the contest with 10 saves, Gray had three and Yestin Davis had one.
With 15 minutes to play, the Dogies were finally able to score their first goal of the season. Anderson sent in a long ball from midfield, then McFarland and Overman worked the defense until McFarland took a well-placed shot and found the back of the net.
“It was great to end on a high note by scoring our first goal of the season. That was the last score of the game and is something we can build upon going forward,” Hoover said. “We have so much potential and we have more skill out on the field than we’ve had in a long time, but we need to put things together as a team.” 
The Dogies have back-to-back home games again this weekend against Douglas on Friday starting at 6 p.m. for varsity, then on Saturday, JV plays half a game starting at noon with varsity to follow at 1 p.m. or 1:15.