Dogies snap losing streak in Gering

The Dogies headed to Gering, Nebraska, on April 2, having lost the last six match-ups with the Bulldogs. With a school population three times that of Newcastle, they definitely have a numbers advantage over the Dogies, but head coach Sally Hoover’s small but mighty squad proved that size doesn’t matter as they made it clear they were the better team on the pitch and got a big 2-1 win.

“I knew that Gering would be tough, but I also knew that they had been struggling this year,” Hoover began. “Between that, and how we’ve started the season, I knew that they were beatable.”

The Dogies went into the contest without their leading scorer, as Jacob Abu Zhara was missing from the line-up. However, that didn’t diminish the Dogies’ performance as players stepped up to fill those shoes.

Zach Orsborn was the man of the hour in the contest being a key to both of the Dogies’ goals scored in the game. He got his team on the board in the fifth minute by sending a penalty kick into the back of the net from about the midfield distance.

“That was kind of the turning point,” Hoover said. “I think they decided if they couldn’t beat us, they were going to hurt us, and things got really rough after that.”

Despite the escalated physicality of play, the Dogies got another one past the Bulldog keeper in the 19th minute of play. Orsborn facilitated the score by sending a nice through ball to Colter Christensen who knocked it into the back of the net.

The Dogies went into the half-time break with the 2-0 lead, but also bearing the fallout of the extreme physical play by the Bulldogs.

“We were pretty beat up by then, and we had some guys limping,” Hoover said. “I’d had to sub throughout the first half just to give some players a break for feet that had been stepped on and some twisted ankles. So I told the boys to keep the ball moving and to get it away from you before they have a chance to get to you.”

The strategy of moving the ball quickly to avoid being a target of the Gering defense meant that the game got a little less clean for the Dogies.

“We did get a little panicky,” Hoover admitted. “We weren’t making good connections and we did a lot of running the ball down, so that changed the pace of the game.”

Gering was able to get on the board with 35 minutes to play, but were only able to get one past Dogie keeper Will Beastrom who ended the game with 13 saves.

“It was not very pretty soccer, and I didn’t want anyone to get hurt,” Hoover said. “We did manage to keep our heads and we got the win, which was the first win against them in six years — and that was pretty cool.”

On Saturday, the Dogies hosted their home opener with their first conference contest against the No. 1-ranked Worland Warriors. Abu Zhara was back on the pitch for this contest, but the Dogies were missing another starter in Caleb Hoover.

The two teams were also tasked with playing in the rain for the entirety of the contest.

“Luckily, it wasn’t super cold and the wind wasn’t blowing, so it was just soccer in the rain,” Hoover said. “No one practices that much in the rain, but both of us were at least playing in the same conditions.”

Hoover went on to note that it was probably Worland’s best game of the season so far, but wasn’t the best game for the Dogies, so she is looking forward to a rematch to
even the score after dropping the contest 1-4.

The Warriors scored their first goal 11 minutes into the game to take the 1-0 lead. The Dogies answered back eight minutes later when Jacob Powers knocked the ball into the net after intercepting a deflection off the Warriors’ goal.

“It was a really nice shot by Jacob,” Hoover said. “The game was really even, and it went back and forth a lot after that.”

Worland found the back of the Dogies’ net again with eight minutes remaining in the half, to go up 2-1 at the half.

“The boys were really positive and felt good about where they were,” Hoover said. “They could see that they were playing well and that Worland wasn’t better than they were, which was great to see.”

The Dogies started the second half ready to battle, but six minutes in the Warriors scored again on a corner kick. They got their final goal of the contest with 24 minutes to play in the game.

“The last 20 minutes were pretty boring to watch,” Hoover said. “We were just a little off by then and we kind of ran out of gas. We definitely didn’t play our best soccer at the end, so I’m excited for our rematch.”

The Dogies will host Douglas Thursday for their second conference game of the season, then to travel to Rawlins on Saturday to take on the Outlaws. The Dogies are scheduled to kick off at 6 p.m. on Thursday.