Wolverines come out strong in second half of the game

The Weiser Wolverine boys’ soccer team faced the Fruitland Grizzlies in Fruitland in their first conference match-up of the season on Thursday, Sept. 10.
 The first 25 minutes of the game had six attempts by Weiser to the Fruitland goal with no success. Fruitland also had a few attempts deflected by Weiser goalkeeper Gabe Rasmussen. Then a Fruitland midfielder snuck a goal into the left-hand corner of the net for the first score of the game.
 Within minutes, Fruitland attempted again, but Rasmussen had a nice save, so no score. The Grizzlies were on a roll, however, and scored twice more in just a few minutes.
 As time was running out in the first half, Fruitland attempted twice more with no success to end the half 0-3.
 The first ten minutes of the second half, the ball was back and forth between both goals. Both defenses played strong allowing no attempts on the goals. Then the Grizzlies received their first yellow card for fouling the Weiser goalkeeper. Several minutes later, Fruitland scored again and the Wolverines were down 0-4.
 Coach Kathy Bokides shared that this was the first game the team played together due to the cancellations and shortened season.
 It was pretty evenly matched until the 25th minute. Weiser had a couple of defensive breakdowns in the middle which Fruitland capitalized on. The team was able to regroup during half-time.
 “Halftime was a team-building, confidence building five minutes; the team came out with a new sense of confidence and trust in each other,” Bokides said.
 Not to be defeated easily, the Wolverines kept fighting. Finally, Weiser midfielder, Marcos Tarelo, worked the ball into the goal from a corner kick by Alfonso Hernandez, for Weiser’s first score.
 Wolverine Chris Gonzalez followed that quickly with another goal to bring the score 2-4.  
 With only a few minutes remaining, Weiser scored goal number three by Gonzalez, assisted by a long pass from Jordan Watkins.
 Bokides shared that she was proud of the team’s comeback to end the game with a tight score. While the score of 3-4 was in Fruitland’s favor, it was a good game to open the season.