Austin 17U boys soccer team holds off Fairbault
Published 10:14 pm Monday, June 13, 2016
The Austin 17U boys soccer team stayed undefeated, but it also learned a lesson as it beat Faribault 6-5 at Wescott Athletic Complex Monday.
Matias Parada had a hat trick in the first half as Austin (6-0 overall) had a 5-1 lead at the break, but Faribault scored three goals in the last 13 minutes to get within one score late in the game.
“We had a really good first half and then we came into the second half with a bad mentality. We came in thinking it was going to be a breeze and they nicked away at us. We held them off enough, but it was a rough second half,” Parada said. “We’ve just got to forget about the second half remember the first half, where were firing on all cylinders for sure.”
Tucker Nelson hit a 25-yard free kick for a goal to make it 2-1 Austin early in the game and then Parada scored back-to-back goals in a nine minute spurt to make it 4-1 Austin.
Parada then found Pat Sheehan for a goal to make it 5-1 and Brayden Merritt scored on an assist from Corbin Munger to make it 6-2 early in the second half.
Chris Kirchgatter had nine saves in net for Austin, but Faribault had a few too many easy looks in the second frame.
“We just didn’t remember the fundamentals of soccer and I think our team was frustrated as a whole because we couldn’t play together,” Nelson said.
Austin is working on getting better this summer to prepare for the upcoming high school season in the fall. Nelson said the team is starting to gain chemistry.
“We’ve been playing together and working on connecting our passes, because that’s going to help us in the fall,” he said.