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NHS boys team becoming accustomed to
familiar role
GFU beats Warner Pacific, Lewis
& Clark, but falls to UPS
Slow start stymies George Fox
Sports Calendar
NHS
bounces back
takes out Vikings |
The Newberg boys soccer team thwarts Forest Grove
2-0 after a tough loss to Tigard last week |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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 With seven games remaining on its schedule, every contest takes on added
importance for the Newberg High School boys soccer team. On Monday, the Tigers helped
themselves out with a key 2-0 home victory over Forest Grove.
“Today was good for us,” said NHS senior forward Ryan Powers.
“Everybody came working pretty hard and after the Tigard game we definitely
didn’t want to go through that again. We expect a lot of ourselves, so it’s a
good start for us. We’re on the right track.”
The win was not only Newberg’s first Pac-9 Conference victory, but also
helped the Tigers to even its conference record to 1-1 after suffering a 2-1 loss to
Tigard last week.
“We lost to Tigard and that hurts so that makes all of these pretty much
must-win games,” said Newberg coach Hans Schneiter. “If we lose one more,
it’s going to start slipping out of our hands and we won’t be in control.
We’ve got to set ourselves up to where when we’re playing the big games, like
Woodburn and Tualatin, that we’re already in a position to have things won.”
The loss to Tigard hurt Newberg, Powers said.
“They were probably better than we expected,” he said. “Most
of the guys expected to walk out of there with a win, but we just weren’t ready. We
lost (a) game we probably shouldn’t have. We should have been more mentally prepared
for that.”
Schneiter said a solid week of practice was what gave the Tigers the win
Monday.
“(The game against Tigard) was a tough loss, but (his players) were good
on the bus ride home,” he said. “We talked about it and it was out of our system
that night, so then we came back and had good, hard practices.”
With the preseason finished and Newberg notching a 4-1-1 record, Powers said
he liked the way the Tigers played but saw room for improvement.
“We went through the preseason and finished pretty strongly and did pretty
well, but I think we kind of decided we didn’t need to work anymore,” he said.
“We lost to a team that we shouldn’t have lost to.”
A sore spot for the Tigers has been injuries. Senior Matt Friesen is nearly
healthy, while senior midfielder Cody Russel missed all of last week’s practice with
an injury. Powers hasn’t been able to avoid the injury bug either. As a first-team
all-Pac-9 Conference selection last season, Powers didn’t suffer an injury. This
year, he is off to a hot start but an ankle injury has slowed him down. Despite the
injury, Powers has been the major scoring force for the Tigers. Of Newberg’s 19 goals
in eight games, Powers is credited with 11. He’s scored a hat trick once and has a
pair of goals in four other games.
Getting used to playing injured takes time, Powers said.
“It hurts, but I just need to not be stubborn and tape it, do some work
on it and strengthen it,” he said. “I’ve never had this bad of an ankle
problem. Every time I go out and play, I’m rolling it.”
Newberg’s leading scorer nursing an injury has put Schneiter in a tough
spot. He has to decide how many minutes Powers receives, along with what time to put him
in the game.
“We’ve got to get him healthy,” Schneiter said. “An ankle
injury is something that if you don’t play it right, it will be around for the rest
of the season. We’re just trying to get him healthy, playing him in spots and trying
to get the most out of him. He’s also out of shape because he hasn’t been
practicing, so we’re slowly working him back into shape.”
On Monday, Powers played a majority of the game and scored both goals, but
got a scare when he was kicked in his already-injured ankle. It’s made
Schneiter’s decisions difficult because it’s tough to keep a player who has
scored nearly 60 percent of the team’s goals out of the game.
“At the same time, though, you can see how quickly he can get injured in
just one play, so we’ve just got to be careful,” Schneiter said.
Schneiter has had to make a few changes to bolster the team’s scoring
chances with his top player injured.
“I’ve been trying to get some other guys to step up. I’m looking for
Tony (Zamora) to score,” he said. “I brought him up from (junior varsity) where
he scored something like 17 goals in five games, so he’s just finding the rhythm of
varsity ball. Once he gets a feel for the game and his teammates, he’ll be OK.
He’s got some quick feet, speed and a pretty decent touch.”
When Powers gets healthy, expect him to terrorize the opposition’s
defense even more than he has already this season. He hopes to have a good season because
he’s trying to earn a scholarship to play college soccer at Westmont, Point Loma or
Azusa Pacific — all NAIA colleges in California.
“I’ve been doing well, but it’s just that the injuries
...,” he said. “It’s the first year that I’ve really had them ... I
really want to go to Westmont, but it’s going to be difficult. I’m going to have
to work really hard to get into that school ...”
The Tigers return to action Thursday with a 4:30 p.m. game at Dallas, a team
that has struggled in recent years. Powers said the Tigers aren’t going to take the
game lightly, though.
“We need to be ready to play,” he said. “We can’t walk in
anywhere thinking we’re going to win games. We’re not that good.”
Schneiter said the same.
“I wasn’t there last year, but I know it was a pretty rough game
and there was a red card,” he said. “So it’s one of those games where
we’ve got to keep our heads in it. And like I told the guys, if we play our game and
play to our abilities instead of playing to the other team’s abilities, we’ll do
well and be fine. But a lot of times, we have a mental letdown and lose our
intensity.” |
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From Oct. 1,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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