The Aplington-Parkersburg girls and AP/DNH boys soccer teams split with Hudson Monday. In a game that aired on 99 The Wave, the United won 1-0 in Aplington, and the Falcon girls lost 4-0 at the #9 (1A) Pirates.
The boys teams played through a scoreless first half. With 24:53 left in the second half, Hudson’s goalkeeper was caught out of position after making a save, and freshman Aiden Merrill tapped the ball into the net for the game’s only score. Head Coach Perry Bernard says the second half adjustments led to the much-needed win.
“The boys needed that,” Bernard says. “We had a tough game against GCGR and we definitely needed that win. We haven’t beaten Hudson in two years, so this was a big thing for the boys. First half was kind of a lack of fundamentals kind of all around. We had a different set. We had a little pep talk in the locker room with them. They knew what they needed to clean up and fix so they kind of cleaned that up second half and then we did a different set too and pushed a little harder on the offensive side.”
Goalkeeper Adrian Huisman recorded eight saves. The 1-1 United will be at Columbus Catholic Thursday.
Interview with Bernard:
In the girls game, the Pirates scored twice each in the first and second halves, and the Falcons were unable to string together scoring opportunities. The Falcons are 1-1 and will host Waterloo Columbus Thursday.
Three Falcon teams will be in action Tuesday. The boys golf team will begin its season by joining AGWSR at a triangular hosted by Wapsie Valley at Maple Hills Country Club in Tripoli. Head Coach Gary Flanigan on the season-opening meet.
“Wapsie was young last year and AGWSR was state champs three years ago on the 1A level, so they’re gonna be good golfers” Flanigan says. “We haven’t, since I’ve been golf coach, played on that golf course, so that’s gonna be a new experience. It’s kind of nice that we have to understand our golf game, our distance of our clubs, to perform on a course we’ve never played before and I’ve never personally played it so I don’t really have the insight to give them. We’ll see how they handle it, especially because we have a lot of these young kids who haven’t played and we’ll see how well they do there. So I’m looking forward to that.”
The meet will begin at 4:15 p.m.
The track & field teams will join a mix of NICL and out-of-conference teams at a coed meet at Grundy Center. It’ll be the first outdoor meet of the season for both teams. It’ll begin at 4:30 p.m.
