TROJANS BOYS' SOCCER: Trojans fall to SWC

EDGERTON — The Trojans boys’ soccer team went to double overtime before falling to the Southwest Minnesota Christian Eagles 4-3 Tuesday in Edgerton.

The Trojans got themselves into an early 2-0 hole after the Eagles scored two goals just over two minutes apart in the first half. The first goal came off the foot of Nathan Pfeifle with 33:19 remaining after Pfeifle drove past the Worthington defense and put it in the right corner past Trojans goalie Kody Honius.

The second goal came with 31:47 left in the first when the Eagles’ Klint Knutson rushed past the defense and went in one-on-one with Honius. Knutson was able to put the ball past Honius to put SWC up 2-0.

“We dug ourselves into an early 2-0 hole,” WHS coach Smitty Eknitphong said. “At that point I encouraged them to hustle more and put more pressure on the player with the ball.”

With 15 minutes left in the half, the Trojans finally woke up and were able to put a goal in the net with 11:16 remaining. Jose Castillo drove a shot at the net, but it went off the hand of an Eagles player to give Worthington a penalty shot. Jesus Ordaz took the shot for the Trojans and blasted the ball past SWC’s goalie to cut the lead to one.

“In the first 25 minutes, we came out and didn’t really pressure much,” Eknitphong said. “But with about 15 minutes left, we woke up and were able to get some chances. We put pressure on the ball handler and challenged them for the rest of the half.”

In the second half, the Trojans kept up their pressured attack, picking up two goals to take the lead for the first time in the game.

The Trojans first goal came from Josh Kleve with an assist going to Andrew Johnson with 25 minutes remaining in the second. Johnson spotted Kleve cutting through the defense and hit him with a pass. Kleve took the pass and drove to the net, taking a shot from 16 feet out that beat SWC’s goalie to tie the game at two.

“In the second half, we had a lot of momentum,” Eknitphong said. “We took what we were doing in the last 15 minutes of the first and continued to play aggressively.”

Worthington’s second goal of the second half also came from Kleve with 16:46 left.

But the Eagles would not go away, with Pfeifle getting his second goal to tie the game with just over 13 minutes left in the game to send it to overtime.

Neither team scored in the first overtime, but SWC would claim victory in the second OT off a goal by Knutson with three minutes remaining in the overtime.

“Again, our defense played well,” Eknitphong said. “It was a pretty physical game and we were able to apply pressure to put them on their heels. I don’t know if we had much left in our tanks going into the second overtime. And with a number of kids getting injured, we were pretty tired at the end.”

The Trojans (3-3) travel to Central Minnesota Christian Thursday.

“It was an epic game; I really enjoyed watching both sides play,” Eknitphong said. “I thought the guys who came in to replace other players did a really good job. I couldn’t be more proud of them. They could leave their heads held high after that one.”

WHS 1 2 0 0 — 3

SWC 2 1 0 1 — 4

Tags: sports, trojans, soccer, prep