BROOKINGS – Brookings boys’ and girls’ soccer each fell Tuesday in a doubleheader against Yankton. The Bobcat girls lost 4-3 and the boys took a 6-2 loss.
Girls
• Yankton 4, Brookings 3
The Bucks struck first and Brookings seemed to be playing catchup the rest of the game.
Cora Schurman got the scoring going with a goal in the 12th minute. Brookings didn’t take long to tie things up as Alexis Schleske took a pass from Desirae Johnson and netted one seven minutes later.
Yankton regained the lead in the 25th minute when Emma Christensen scored on a free kick. The Bucks then made it 3-1 on a Molly Vornhagen with one second left in the first half.
Maddix Archer scored in the 59th minute to make it 3-2. Christensen stretched the lead for Yankton again when she found the back of the net five minutes later. Archer then scored her second goal of the game in the 81st minute. She had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds, but the ball rolled just to the right of the goal.
Brookings had 18 total shots on the day and seven of them were on goal. Yankton had nine shots and six of them were on goal. Archer led the way for the Bobcats with 10 shots total and three on goal. Schleske had four total shots and two on goal.
“We found the offense today that we have really been looking foor,” said Brookings head coach Adam Juba. “Yesterday in practice we did a drill where we worked on pressing the ball and pressing it high up the field to win it up the field and get more chances. I think that worked so well today and we had seven or eight shots on goal which was fantastic. Unfortunately more of them didn’t fall, but we got the offense there. Yeah it sucks to lose, but it was really exciting and we played really well.”
Brookings is now 2-8 and plays Pierre at home at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Boys
• Yankton 6, Brookings 3
The Bobcats fell behind 2-0 and cut the lead to 3-2, but then fell apart down the stretch.
Yankton scored 10 minutes into the game to make it 1-0 and doubled their lead in the 25th minute. Schaffer Vestal cut the lead in half in the 59th minute of the game on a penalty kick.
The Bucks stretched the lead back to two goals just two minutes later. Two minutes after that Vestal scored again to make it 3-2. Yankton then scored two goals in two minutes to make it 5-2 and put a dagger in the back of the net in the 77th minute
“We felt like when it was 3-2 we were firing on all cylinders, but then Junior [Eberlinde] came out of the game with a reinjury and things sort of fell apart from there. … The guys are playing really hard and I think coming from being down 2-0 at halftime to getting it to 3-2 and having that energy that we can really compete with these guys is really what we’re trying to preach to these guys,” said Brookings head coach Steve Binkley.
Brookings was outshot 24-13. The Bucks had 11 shots on goal and the Bobcats had three. Vestal had four total shots with three of them being on goal. Carter Johnson had three shots on goal as well.
The Bobcats are now 1-8 and will play Pierre at home at noon on Saturday.
