Wolverines lose to Payette, tie Fruitland

The Weiser varsity boys soccer team finished the week with one loss and a tie. The games  brought their overall record to 4-7-2, and conference record 4-4-2.

 Thursday game was the fourth time playing Payette. The game ended in a 0-1 loss for the Wolverines. The action was back and forth, with neither team taking solid control of the ball for long.

 Goalie Gabe Rasmussen had several saves beginning about 15 minutes in. Play became more intense with close calls happening in front of each goal. 

 With 4 minutes left on the clock in the first half, play came back in front of Weiser’s goal. Payette was going in for a shot and during play Justin Estes from Weiser fell to the ground. The ball was under him when he went down, and he was unable to get back up. A yellow card was given to Estes and Payette received a free direct kick. Pirate Maik Werner took the shot and was able to get it past Rasmussen to put the only point of the game on the board.

 During the second half, Rasmussen and the rest of the Weiser defense worked together to keep the Pirates from scoring again.

 Seven minutes into the second half, Weiser’s Triston Kautz received a yellow card after colliding into a Payette player. 

 Weiser’s offense took several shots at the Payette goal but as Coach Kathy Bokides said, “The boys played hard, but just couldn’t finish.”

Weiser versus Fruitland

 On Tuesday, Sept. 25, the Wolverines went to Fruitland and played a tough game against the Grizzlies, ending in a 1-1 score. 

 Both teams came out strong, with shots being taken by each side. At 17 minutes in, it looked like Weiser was going to score, but the ball went just slightly to the side of the net. 

 The first point happened with 6 minutes left on the clock. Play was in front of the Weiser goal after a corner kick taken by Fruitland. In the mess of bodies, Weiser’s Ander Barbot tried to clear the ball with a head bump, but it went the wrong direction and into the goal.

 Wolverine Cristoval Alvarez started the second half off quickly, by scoring a goal in just over a minute of play. He made a shot that deflected off the far post and went in. This brought the score to a 1-1 tie that stayed for the rest of the game. 

 At 12:50 into the second half, a yellow card was given to Grizzly Santiago Gonzalez for pushing. Weiser’s Marcos Tarelo took the foul kick, but it was deflected by the Fruitland goalie back into play. 

 Kautz dribbled the ball down the field with 6 minutes left, and took a shot that hit the corner post and barely went out of bounds.

 Weiser’s Jordan Watkins went down injured during the last 2 minutes of play. When his teammates noticed and saw that the ref was not stopping the game to check on him, teammate Sergio Orosco kicked the ball out of bounds to stop play so a sub could come in. Game time ended with a tie score of 1-1.

 Weiser fans were unhappy with a questionable lack of calls during the game. 

 Coach Bokides was proud of how the boys played, though. 

 “You can’t change the ref, and can’t change the field, so you play with what you’ve got,” she said.