There was plenty of rain, but not much Thunder at Tuesday’s Bay Conference Tournament soccer match between Shawano and Seymour.
The second-seeded Hawks took care of business, handing the No. 7-seed Thunder a 5-0 shutout.
“They played well, they played hard,” Shawano coach Bob Croschere said.
“This was a team we probably should have beaten. You always worry about it before the game starts, but once we got moving we took care of things right away.”
Any hopes Seymour had of pulling off the upset on a soggy SCHS pitch were dashed 24 minutes in. After giving up a goal on an assist from Shawano’s Garret Schlise to Chancellor VanDyck 12 minutes into the match, the Thunder surrendered a second goal to the same Shawano combination of Schlise and VanDyck.
Less than a minute later, Schlise put in a goal unassisted to put the Hawks up 3-0.
“(Shawano) moved the ball well, they had good possession,” Croschere said. “It’s a good time for us to start clicking.”
With 11:55 left in the half, Shawano was awarded a free kick on a foul in front of the Seymour goal. Schlise put the ball past Seymour keeper Brayden Wilinski to put Shawano up 4-0.
With the Hawks in complete control of the match, Michael Teeter put an insurance goal with 7:26 left in the half.
Meanwhile, Shawano goalie Michael Meisner wasn’t letting anything past him. He had four saves to maintain the shutout. Wilinski also had four saves.
Both teams were held scoreless in the second half as Shawano was able to rest some starters and get some other players some significant minutes.
“It’s nice to get some of those players, who have kind of been on the bench all year, get a little bit of time in the games as well,” Croschere said. “We’re deep. I have no reservations about putting backups in and playing certain positions.”
The victory and a victory by No. 3 seed West De Pere sets up a rematch of last Tuesday’s game between Shawano and West De Pere next Tuesday in Shawano.
“I’m expecting a good game either way,” Croschere said. “My players know what they have to do once we actually play it. We’ll see what happens.”
Despite the recent experience between the two teams, Croschere says his team will be focused on playing its game no matter the circumstances.
“I don’t think it really matters,” Croschere said. “It’s just another soccer game. We’re going to play one way or the other, whether it’s them or somebody else. We just have to get there and take care of business.”
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