By Becky Walz,
The Decorah girls soccer team (2-5) was back in action with back-to-back matches on the road. Monday, the Vikes were at Denver, then went to Waverly-Shell Rock Tuesday.
Monday recap
According to Coach Loren Hendrickson, Monday’s game was a before and after affair at Denver (9-1) that ended in a Cyclone win 4-0 over the Vikes.
“Before Denver scored their first goal, we played quite even with the Cyclones. We were making smart decisions with the ball and connecting passes,” said Coach Hendrickson.
That all changed when Denver scored 21 minutes into the first half. The goal came about when Decorah’s defense was unable to clear a cross cleanly, leaving a free shot by a Denver forward.
“After that, it seemed like the life went out of us a little. We started just kicking the ball away, often right back into possession of Denver. Denver scored their second goal just two and a half minutes later,” noted the coach.
The second half was more of the same as the Vikes struggled to get any meaningful possession. Despite that, Decorah’s defense and goalkeeper put in a great effort to keep Denver from scoring. That all changed when a penalty was called against one of the Viking defenders with only four minutes left in the game. Denver converted the PK and went on to score again, only a minute and a half later.
“We need to focus on keeping the ball in our possession better. Those first minutes of the first half had me very encouraged. After that first goal however, all of that went out the window,” concluded Coach Hendrickson.
Decorah was unable to have any shots on the goal, but Mya Redenius finished the night with 17 saves as the Vikes goalkeeper.
At W-SR
Playing at undefeated Waverly-Shell Rock (7-0) Tuesday, the Vikes came away empty with a 7-0 loss.
The Go-Hawks put the ball in the back of the net four times in the first half and put the game away with three more in the second.
In the goal Redenius came away with seven saves.
On the horizon
Decorah will be at Clayton Ridge Monday, May 1, at 6:30 p.m., then travel to Union Thursday, May 4, for a 5 p.m. match.
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