The Brookings Bobcats soccer teams saw their seasons come to an end as the boys and girls both lost to Rapid City Stevens in the Class AA State Soccer Tournament on Tuesday night.
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RAPID CITY — The Brookings Bobcats soccer teams saw their seasons come to an end as the boys and girls both lost to Rapid City Stevens in the Class AA State Soccer Tournament on Tuesday night.
The Bobcats faced the Raiders as the 14th seed in Tuesday night’s game and Stevens controlled play and generated plenty of chances in a 5-0 victory.
The scoring began when Breanna Reagan scored in the 11th minute but the Bobcats were able to weather the storm and head into halftime down 1-0.
“I thought we played a really good first half,” Brookings coach Adam Juba said. “We were only down 1-0 at halftime but in the second half, they really poured on the direct play and they got the ball through our back line. That’s always difficult to stop in a game like that.”
Ava Holzworth doubled Stevens’ lead in the 4th minute and Baliey Fox scored with an assist from Brayden Baird to put the Raiders ahead in the 54th minute.
With Holzworth’s second goal of the game in the 63rd minute and Laney Connell’s goal from Reaan in the 72nd minute, the Bobcats season had come to an end. But despite the final result, Juba reflected on the growth he saw from his team this season, especially on the defensive end.
“I think what we accomplished is playing more sound defensively,” Juba said. “We’ve given up the least amount of goals this year than we ever have as a program and that means we’re trending in the right direction of keeping teams off the scoreboard.”
The performance lends to optimism heading into next season as the Bobcats do not have a graduating player on the varsity team.
“We have the same crew showing up next year,” Juba said. “So if we can continue that trend and then find a way to put some balls in the back of the net, we’ll be really good next year.”
The Bobcats finished the season with a record of 4-10-1.
The 13th-seeded Bobcats rallied from a 2-0 deficit to take a lead late in the second half, but the fourth-seeded Raiders scored a late goal and two more goals in extra time to walk away with a 5-3 victory.
The Raiders struck early when Andre Napier scored in the second minute and Stevens doubled its lead when Trenton Policky scored in the 29th minute. But Brookings snatched some momentum just before halftime when Dominic VanHofwegen sent the ball in on a free kick and onto Brayden Schreiber’s foot to make it a 2-1 game with 9:51 left in the first half.
The Bobcats’ comeback continued in the second half when they were awarded a penalty kick for a handball by Joshua Mueller and Braylon Peters converted to tie the game with 20:34 left in regulation.
VanHofwegen scored off a set piece to give Brookings a 3-2 lead with 10:46 remaining in regulation but Trenton Policky scored off a feed from the corner to tie the game at 3-3 with 6:09 left and send the game to extra time.
Policky would reprise his role in extra time when he moved into the box and sent a runner to Connor Williams, who gave the Raiders the lead in the 85th minute. Matthew Grubic added another goal in the 99th minute to put the game away and advance after a strong upset bid by the Bobcats.
“We battled for 100 minutes,” Brookings coach Reece Weber said. We battled in those little moments when we talked about concentration and the playoff intensity. I was very proud of the boys to come back from a two-goal deficit and score three unanswered goals and we made Stevens battle for that win.”
In addition, Weber believed the loss was a microcosm of the Bobcats’ season, getting off to a tough start, mounting a five-game unbeaten streak and losing five straight to close the regular season.
“I think the biggest change for us was our mentality,” Weber said. “We had a weird season kind of due to our schedule but in those moments, you kind of learned who you are as a team. Dealing with the biggest highs when you go on that unbeaten streak and the lowest lows you can have going five games without a win. Tonight, we started off kind of down on ourselves, went down two goals, but the boys showed resilience, came back and got ourselves in a position to move into the next round. It didn’t happen, but we battled on the field.”
Connor Shelden had an assist on Schreiber’s goal in the first half and Tony Nguyen had 15 saves for Brookings. Schreiber had four shots with a shot on goal while VanHofwegen had three shots with one shot on goal. Forrest Giard had two shots with another on goal. Isaiah Vogt and Braylon Peters also had a shot on goal.
