The Brookings Bobcats are making their final push toward the playoffs as they hosted Sioux Falls Lincoln for a doubleheader at the Fishback Soccer Complex on Tuesday night.
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BROOKINGS — The Brookings Bobcats are making their final push toward the playoffs as they hosted Sioux Falls Lincoln for a doubleheader at the Fishback Soccer Complex on Tuesday night.
The girls’ soccer team defeated the Patriots 1-0 in the first game of the doubleheader while the boys team lost the night cap 4-2.
The Bobcats will return to action when they head to O’Gorman for a doubleheader beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday.
The Bobcats made a convincing argument in their quest for a playoff spot, defeating the Patriots in the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader. Brookings entered the night holding onto the final playoff spot in Class AA but their win over the Patriots could pay huge dividends as they enter the final four games of the regular season.
“It was absolutely huge for us,” Brookings coach Adam Juba said. “For as long as I can remember, I can’t recall us beating Lincoln, so it’s massive for us and our playoff hopes.”
Tuesday’s game was played with a strong wind and the Bobcats took advantage by playing with it to their backs in the first half. Shae Lefers led a rush upfield in the 28th minute when she shot at the net from outside the box. The gamble paid off as the ball snuck in underneath the crossbar and allowed the Bobcats to take a 1-0 lead into halftime.
“Shea is just a really smart player and she knew she had a 25 mph wind behind her back,” Juba said. “She just sent it up and she knew to put it on frame and good things happen when you put a ball like that on frame.”
Lincoln came out aggressively in an attempt to tie the game in the second half but Brookings packed it in defensively to keep them off the board. Ashley Rients made nine saves on the evening and helped the Bobcats hold on for the win despite being out-shot 5-1 in the second half.
“The girls knew their assignments and they knew they had to step to every single ball and not allow them to shoot,” Juba said. “I think they did an absolutely fantastic job.”
Lefers led the way with four total shots and three shots on goal. Aubrey Giard had two shots including a shot on goal for the Bobcats while Lexi Erp had a shot on goal and Sophia Schmit had a shot in the win.
With four games to go in the regular season, the Bobcats know what’s at stake as they look to make the playoffs. Juba has reaffirmed his team while stating the task at hand and hopes Tuesday’s win, which came off the heels of a 10-0 win at Huron last Saturday, can build momentum down the stretch.
“I told the girls before the game we have got to get every positive result that we can the rest of the season if we want a playoff spot and they responded very, very well today,” Juba said. “They played wonderfully. They know that our games are going to be close and they stood tall, especially in that second half.”
The Bobcats are closing in on a playoff spot but Tuesday’s loss to the Patriots showed the type of team they will have to beat to get a home playoff game.
Brookings didn’t play poorly on Tuesday night, but they played a team that is toward the top of the Class AA standings. With the Bobcats entering Tuesday in 10th place, it will take a win or two to reach its goal.
“I kind of figured it was going to be tight in the standings this year,” Brookings coach Reece Weber said. “We were 5-2 before this game and we were sitting in 10th place, so that tells you how competitive the top end of the standings are.”
Lincoln showed their competitiveness early when Camden Thomas scored with an assist from Liam Van Roekel in the ninth minute and scored an unassisted goal in the 11th minute. But with the Patriots ahead 2-0, Forrest Giard scored his first goal of the night from Brayden Love to cut the lead in half in the 32nd minute.
“He’s a dangerous player when he gets on the ball,” Weber said of Giard. “The other teams know it by now, so they’re going to try to double him and try to win the ball off him and be physical with him. But we were able to get him loose a couple of times and he was able to put the ball away.”
The Patriots offense was too much for Brookings to get back into the game. Miles Rofling scored with an assist from Brady Stamp to make it a 3-1 game at halftime and Thomas completed a hat trick with his goal at 27:53 of the second half.
Giard scored again from Dominic VanHofwegen in the 72nd minute but Weber wanted to see the same competitiveness earlier in the game that the Bobcats had in the final 10 minutes.
“We knew we were going to have to win the battle of intensity and effort,” Weber said. “Unfortunately, there’s a couple of moments where maybe we lacked a bit of the intensity and those little moments in the game are what cost us tonight.”
Giard ended the game with four total shots and three on goal. Braeden Schreiber finished with two shots and one on goal. VanHofwegen and Zachary Mueller each had a shot.
The Bobcats had five corner kicks in the game while Tony Nguyen had three saves in goal.
The loss was the Bobcats first since a 2-0 defeat at Watertown on Aug. 29 and Brookings still has a 5-3-1 record as they head into Thursday’s game with O’Gorman. But despite any silver lining, Weber knows his team needs to keep earning wins in order to get a playoff game in Brookings.
“We’re going to play a lot of teams that are athletic and fast,” Weber said. “We’re just going to have to out-compete them for 80 minutes. At the end of this game, we won the last 10 minutes and we got a goal out of it, so if we can do that for 80 minutes, we should be in good shape.”
