The Hawks control their own destiny.
That was the message Shawano Community High School boys soccer coach Bob Croschere had for his players Tuesday night ahead of a Bay Conference match against West De Pere.
With a 2-1 victory, Shawano secured the No. 2 seed in the Bay Conference tournament, which begins Thursday.
“They took that to heart,” Croschere said. “They came out and played well tonight and it shows.”
Shawano (6-1 Bay) is tied with Hortonville (6-1) as the tournament season is about to begin. The Hawks’ loss to the Polar Bears last week gives the No. 1 seed to Hortonville.
Shawano is guaranteed to host tournament matches Thursday and Tuesday. Opponents had yet to be determined by the Leader’s press time.
Taking the second seed was no easy matter, as first Shawano had to contend with West De Pere (5-1-1 Bay), which would have taken the No. 1 seed with a win.
The Hawks and Phantoms battled to a 1-1 tie in the first half.
Shawano’s Garret Schlise, a senior forward, got the scoring going with an unassisted goal in the 35th minute of the match.
West De Pere’s Osvaldo Ramirez, a junior midfielder/forward who came into the match leading the Bay in goals with 15, spent most of the night bottled up by Daniel Boivin and the Shawano defense.
“We’ve faced a couple players like that this year,” Croschere said. “(The Shawano defenders) were aware he was there, definitely. They stepped up and did what they needed to do.”
Ramirez’s only real damage happened with 3:34 left to go in the half when he got his head on a penalty kick to tie the match 1-1.
In the 54th minute, Schlise once again got a shot off, this time directly in front of the goal. West De Pere goalie Shawn Prokash dove but deflected the ball instead of catching it. Shawano’s Chancellor Van Dyck was there to kick the ball back across the front of the net to Austin Steinbach, who rolled it into the open net for the go-ahead goal.
“I saw Garret and I personally thought he was going to score the goal,” Steinbach said. “I knew Chancellor was going to put it in or I was going to. (It was) the easiest goal; they set me up really nice.”
West De Pere had a couple of long shots on goal, but Shawano goalie Michael Meisner had no trouble corralling all of them. He finished with four saves. Prokash had six saves.
“They had a lot of good opportunities as well,” Croschere said. “They just didn’t take advantage of a few of them. We took advantage of the ones we had. … Overall, we got the breaks tonight.”
Steinbach said the win gives the Hawks some momentum heading into the tournament.
“I think this is the best way we could (go into the tournament),” Steinbach said. “I think it shows that we’re up for the challenge.
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