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Canby overwhelms Newberg 41-7
St. Paul falls in nailbiter
Panthers adjusting to higher level
of play
NHS boys run to Pac-9 title
With one match remaining Newberg
converges on Pac-9 championship
NHS
prepares
for stretch run |
With two big games left, the NHS boys soccer team
Silverton with a 5-0 home win Tuesday |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
|
The real tests for the Newberg High School boys soccer
team commences Monday.
The Tigers (3-1-2 Pac-9 Conference) scored a 5-0 triumph over Silverton
Tuesday with a hat trick by senior Ryan Powers and two goals by Chance Howard. Howard
scored the first two goals of the game in the first half, followed by two more by Powers
to give the Tigers a 4-0 halftime lead.
Powers added Newberg’s final goal with 14 minutes left in the game.
Newberg coach Hans Schneiter said he wasn’t worried the Tigers didn’t continue
to score at will in the second half.
“We tried some different things and put some guys in that don’t
play as much so it’s a little expected that we might have a little bit of a drop in
play,” he said. “I think that just continues to show is something I’ve
already known — that we don’t have a lot of depth. So you’ve got to get
those guys in when you can.”
The Tigers played without their regular goalkeeper, junior Jordan Burger, who
was out with a hip injury. Burger strained some muscles in his hip and was held out but
Schneiter characterized the injury as minor, saying the injury would not keep Burger out
of any more contests.
From Tuesday’s win, it will only get harder for the Tigers. Newberg sits
in a tie for second place in the conference with Tualatin. As luck would have it, the
Tigers and Timberwolves face each other Monday in a 7 p.m. game at Tualatin.
“It’s the biggest game of the year,” said NHS boys soccer
coach Hans Schneiter. “It shouldn’t be, but it is.”
Schneiter doesn’t think the Tigers should be in the position they are
because of two games in particular. Last week, the Tigers tied McMinnville and Canby 1-1
in both games. The games didn’t devastate Newberg’s playoff hopes but it
didn’t really solidify the Tigers as a lock for the playoffs either.
As if it couldn’t get any worse for the Tigers, Newberg will host this
season’s Pac-9 Conference champion Woodburn on Oct. 22 in a 7 p.m. contest, making
the season’s final two games critical.
“Basically, what I’ve been telling the guys is that we want to
build some momentum going into next week,” Schneiter said. “Obviously, we
haven’t been playing well. We had two ties in games we should have won so I said that
we needed to start to playing well going into next week because we have big games.”
In order to prepare for those games, Schneiter said the practice time of the
team is key.
“Basically what you do is that we have three practices left and you have
three of the hardest practices of your life,” he said. “You pick up the
intensity that way and you have to find a way to challenge yourself, to push yourself to
the next level and we’ll do that in practice.”
Schneiter said one way to push the team was through conditioning.
“It’s just one way to tell the guys that it’s important and it
helps their intensity, gets their blood flowing,” he said. “It makes you feel
like you’re doing something, like you’re building up to something. It’s
more of the psychological aspect of it.”
The psychological aspect of any sport is a major factor. Schneiter said the
Tigers are getting stronger mentally.
“We’ve had a tough month,” he said. “The end of September
and October have been tough. Some due to injuries but I think there wasn’t much self
belief. I think it really hurt us against McMinnville. They got that early goal and there
was just no response. They sat back and couldn’t respond, like they didn’t
believe they had the skill to come back.”
After Newberg’s tough practices, the Tigers will take on the
high-scoring Timberwolves.
“Defensively, we’re going to have to play a tight game,”
Schneiter said. “They’ve scored a lot of goals ... but the thing is that
they’ve let in a lot of goals too. So we’re going to have to keep the goal count
down and we’re going to have to finish. That’s important. My guess is that in a
game like that, there’s not going to be a lot of chances.”
With the final two games of the season, Newberg has an advantage if it makes
the playoffs, Schneiter said. The Tigers will have played the top teams in their
conference which will prepare the team for playoff games.
“The nice thing is that these are playoff-type games right now,”
Schneiter said. “In playoff games, the little mistakes are what kill you and
that’s why we’re really trying to get this mental focus and mental toughness
down.” |
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From Oct. 18,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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