Hawks suffer first Bay loss

An aggressive Luxemburg-Casco team was more than the Shawano Community High School soccer team could handle in a 5-0 Bay Conference loss Tuesday in Shawano. Shawano (2-5, 2-1 Bay) was swarmed by Luxemburg-Casco forwards most of the game. Senior Sajen Knueppel racked up 14 saves in Shawano’s goal. “He made a couple of mistakes in there himself,” Shawano coach Bob Croschere said. “We made a couple mistakes on defense that caused them, as well. It’s not completely his fault.” Down 3-0 with 15 minutes left to play, Croschere pulled Knueppel out of the goal to play midfield to spark some offense. The plan backfired, though, as the Spartans continued to get shots on goal, scoring twice against replacement goalie Sam Boivin, who also had four saves. “Pulling defense to push for more offense,” Croschere said. “We gave up a few goals there at the end.” Ten minutes into the match, Luxemburg-Casco (7-1-2, 2-1-1 Bay) struck first with an unassisted goal by junior Malaki Wessel. L-C struck again with 6:51 left in the first half, when junior Salvador Garcia sent a fastball right up the Shawano middle. Knueppel managed to get to it with a leap but managed only to slow the ball’s momentum, and it rolled into the net. In the second half, Luxemburg-Casco scored with 23:39 left when senior Jake Hakari got past Shawano defenders and then sent a ball past Knueppel to the back of the net. The Spartans took a 4-0 lead with 10:45 left to play on a corner kick by Garcia that was headed in by senior Austin Nellis. Luxemburg-Casco’s final goal came when Nellis had a breakaway with 9:56 to play. Shawano got some offensive pressure early in the second half, but Luxemburg-Casco held firm. “We were moving the ball a little bit better, talking some more, and that helped a little bit,” Croschere said. “If we would have played that way in the first half, it might have been a different game in the end.” The Hawks will have Wednesday to review their mistakes before closing out the week with two conference games, at Marinette on Thursday and at home against Seymour on Friday. “This was a good gauge for us as to how we’re going to do the rest of the way in conference,” Croschere said. “We’ll see where it lies from here. We’re going to watch the tape, see what we did, and go from there.”