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Hailee Scheier makes one of her 20 saves in Ripon’s 2-0 loss to the Kewaskum Indians last week Thursday.
The Ripon High School Tiger girls’ soccer team hung tough with one of the better teams in the East Central Conference (ECC) last week Thursday as it lost 2-0 to the Kewaskum Indians at home.
Kewaskum sits second in the ECC, just one game back of a Plymouth Panthers’ team ranked No. 3 in Division 3.
“I couldn’t be more proud; the girls gave me everything they could,” Ripon head coach Steve Nankervis said. “I’m still kind of nursing and fighting through some injuries; getting some people back who aren’t quite 100% yet. But all in all, I’ll take that outcome. It didn’t reflect on the scoreboard positively for us, but for our morale and knowing that we can defend against good teams, it was definitely a moral victory for us.”
A large reason why the Tigers were able to remain close to Kewaskum was the play of goalkeeper Hailee Scheier. The senior made 20 saves in the contest, some of which came on tough shots. She was helped by defenders on her backline, which include Sheridan Zimmerman, Ataly Hatfield, Ari Brooks and Olivia Jennings.
“They stepped up in a big way,” Nankervis said of the defenders. “They were closing down shooting lanes, closing to shooters, not letting them get off easy shots, really making them work for their shots. … They probably had, I think, around 36 shots. I know the other 14 or so went over the goal or went wide or were blocked.”
Both of Kewaskum’s goals were scored by its best player, Natalie Newman. The senior, who leads the Indians with 16 goals and 17 assists, found the back of the net in the fourth and 60th minutes of the game.
“I can’t say enough about that player; she is a really good, talented player,” Nankervis said. “And she deserved what she got … because those two goals she scored were really good goals, quality goals.”
He noted the first goal came off a “beautiful give-and-go in the box” where Kewaskum threaded the needle on Ripon and placed the ball at Newman’s left foot, which is her strong foot, and she was able to beat Scheier far post.
“The key for a goalie is never to give up your near post and if you get beat far post, it’s going to take a great shot and that’s exactly what happened,” Nankervis said. “The girl made a great shot, far post on Hailee.”
He added that Newman’s second goal was similar to the first in that she received a pass right at the top of Ripon’s defensive third, made a dribble, cut it back to her strong foot again and buried it low to the far post.
“Just another good quality goal by a good player,” he said. “Nothing to be too upset about; nothing we could have done differently defensively on her. It’s just her skill was a little bit better than our skills on those two goals.”
While Kewaskum held a commanding 60 to 40% advantage in terms of possession and recorded 22 shots on goals, the Tigers had a few chances of their own to score. The best of them came with around two minutes left in the game, when Karsyn Bauman got behind the defense and took a shot on which the goalie made a nice save.
The ball deflected around and Bauman tried to get another shot off, but couldn’t quite get a foot on it. Foreign-exchange student Sara Trzyna also was there, but was unable to get a solid kick on the ball.
Ripon finished with three shots on goal and also made the Indians’ goalkeeper come off her line on one occasion to take away a one-on-one opportunity. Ahead by only two goals, Nankervis noted the Indians kept their starters in.
The Tigers also limited Kewaskum, which Nankervis said is notorious for earning corner kicks, to four corner kicks.
Tigers defeat Two Rivers 13-0
It was a much different game a couple days earlier for Ripon as it defeated the undermanned and inexperienced Two Rivers Purple Raiders 13-0 last week Tuesday in a contest that ended after 60-minutes due to the mercy rule.
Two Rivers, which has been suffering a lot of injuries and is more of a track school in the spring than a soccer school, showed up with just 10 healthy players. Nankervis agreed to play 10-on-10 instead of the normal 11-on-11 and as the game went on it dropped down to 9-on-9 and even 8-on-8 at one point in time.
The Tigers scored eight goals in the first half, including three in the first nine minutes, before adding five more in the first 20 minutes of the second half. Nankervis noted he did his best to not run up the score as that’s not his style.
“I got a lot of girls involved,” Nankervis said. “We scored 13 goals and we had 12 different people score goals, so it wasn’t like I was having one player just ram it down their throat because we could have. And I even implemented in the second half that we need to make at least five or six passes before we can shoot on goal, just to kind of work on things, too, knowing that the game was in hand after the first half.”
Six of the 12 players to record a goal notched the first of their varsity careers, which included Reese Downs, Jennings, Zimmerman, foreign-exchange student Hannah Talstra, Elena Williams and Amanda Ambrocio. Layla Hein also scored her first varsity point as she assisted on Ambrocio’s goal in the 60th and final minute.
“I’m happy for all the young ladies that got their first high school goal and or assist,” Nankervis said. “A lot of people got involved. It’s a very difficult game to coach, especially when you’re not playing at full strength.”
Also scoring goals for Ripon in the win were Bauman, Summer Anadell, Ellie Rost, Ari Brooks and Scheier. Bauman was the only Tiger to score multiple goals as she finished with two. Joining Hein in recording assists were Ava Nankervis, Ambrocio, Jennings, Williams and Zimmerman. Ava Nankervis and Ambrocio had two each.
Steve Nankervis said that Two Rivers’ goalkeeper, who was a senior, made “some really good saves” early in the game and that she stayed upbeat and positive — even congratulating Ripon players when they scored.
“It was a nice team,” he said. “They are a well-mannered, good team to play in terms of their attitude.”
Up next
Ripon began a challenging week of games Tuesday, when it hosted the Mayville Cardinals in a game that finished after press time.
It also will travel to Waupun Thursday to face the Warriors for the first of three road games to end the regular season. Other road games include Tuesday, May 23 against Freedom and Thursday, May 25 at Clintonville.
The game against Waupun starts at 4:45 p.m., while the other two contests will begin at 4:30 p.m.
