BROOKINGS — The Brookings Bobcats split two games during a doubleheader against the Mitchell Kernels at the Fishback Soccer Complex on Saturday morning.

The boys soccer team earned a 4-0 victory in the first game of the doubleheader while the girls team lost 1-0 in the second game.

The Bobcats will return to action when they host Yankton for a doubleheader at the Fishback Soccer Complex at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Boys

Brookings 4, Mitchell 0

The Bobcats generated consistent pressure in the back end of the first half and cruised to a 4-0 victory over the Kernels in the opening game of the doubleheader.

Brookings registered all eight of their shots in the first half and the scoring began when Mitchell’s Alexier Padilla recorded an own goal off a Braeden Schreiber corner kick to put the Bobcats on the board at 19:55.

The Bobcats' pressure created more chances during the back end of the first half as Zach Mueller fed Vincent Aveli to give Brookings a 2-0 lead at 23:59. Forrest Giard scored from Braylon Peters at 14:25 to give Brookings a 3-0 lead and Dominic Van Hofwegen scored on a free kick at 7:31 to put the Bobcats ahead 4-0 at halftime.

“We worked on it yesterday, kind of putting the ball in dangerous positions where our attacking players that have quality can play to their strengths, get be in dangerous positions and score goals,” Brookings head coach Reece Weber said of the Bobcats’ offense. “The biggest thing for us, we're trying. We're just trying to play to our strengths. Right now, we have four games coming up, so we want to make sure this is the time for us to play our best soccer. So we got to figure stuff out. I thought we did that well.”

The second half belonged to the Bobcats’ defense. Brookings has been strong on the back end all season long and Saturday was no exception as Mitchell was held to three shots with all three being stopped by goalkeeper Tony Nguyen.

“For the most part, we've been a lot more organized defensively this year than I'd say we were last year at this time,” Weber said. “We’ve got some good leaders back there. We've got guys, experienced players that played a lot of arsenals last year, that are in our back line. So we've been pretty disciplined. We've just got to get rid of stealing mistakes. But overall, the defensive line's been pretty solid.”

Giard and Schreiber each had four shots with two shots on goal for the Bobcats. Van Hofwegen, Brayden Love and Iyeli each had two shots with one shot on goal. Mueller finished with a shot on goal. Griffin Bachman, Isaiah Vogt and Sawyer Steen each had one shot. The Bobcats had four corner kicks in the win.

The win gave the Bobcats some confidence after three straight losses and Weber hopes to see a lot of the same as Brookings hosts Yankton on Tuesday.

“I just want to see more of the same, just the confidence on the ball when we have the ball, the confidence that we don't need to be forcing stuff forward,” Weber said. “We can play backward, we can keep a ball under pressure, and then just being organized defensively. That's the name of the game in South Dakota soccer. Which teams would be more organized defensively? So that's what I want to see against Yankton.”

Girls

Mitchell 1, Brookings 0

Ashlynn’s Pollreisz’s goal in the ninth minute and a stop by goalkeeper Tenley Peterson on a penalty kick with 28 seconds remaining helped the Kernels win the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader.

The goal came on a free kick in the ninth minute that floated through the wind and went just over the reach of Brookings goalkeeper Ashley Rients to give the Kernels the early lead. With the Bobcats going into the wind, offense was tough to come by but they still felt confident going into halftime down 1-0.

“It’s tough when you have the wind in your face in the first half and we knew they were going to take some shots but they only put one in,” Juba said. “At halftime we felt really good, changed our formation and tried to play ultra-aggressive up top.”

The Bobcats strategy worked as they generated more pressure but Aubrey Giard had the lone shot of the game. A scrum in front of the net resulted in a penalty kick late in the game but Peterson made a diving stop to the left on a kick by Rients to preserve the lead and help Mitchell earn the win.

Despite the way the game ended, Juba believed Rients played a tremendous game, keeping the Bobcats in it through the first half and notching a strong shot on the PK late in the game.

“It was a fantastic game by Ashley,” Juba said. “She was huge in net for us. She made some really big saves. She’s really smart because we want to build from the back and she’s so great at distributing the ball and getting us in possession of the ball. I think she played a fantastic game.”

The Bobcats fell to 0-4-1 with their fourth straight loss but they found a way to remain in the game. Juba believes that something his team can build on heading into a pair of home games this week including Tuesday’s matchup against Yankton.

“I just want to keep that same energy, turn it up even a little bit more and put it into a complete game.” Juba said.