By Rich Palzewic,
Correspondent
SUAMICO – The Bay Port boys’ soccer team is going through a little rough patch right now.
Battling a key injury to one of its best players, the Pirates dropped a hard-fought 2-1 Fox River Classic Conference game to the Sheboygan North Golden Raiders on August 29 at Bay Port High School.
The only tally of the contest for Bay Port (1-2 overall, 0-1 FRCC) came from senior Griffin Pecore, who scored on a penalty kick with 18 minutes remaining in the game. North had taken a 2-0 lead with goals in the 10th and 50th minutes.
“We’re hurting right now,” said Bay Port head coach Travis Herber. “We have some guys out and have some younger guys that would normally be role players having to step in with more minutes than we expected to start the season.
“I can’t be more proud of the way guys played. With the situation that was thrown at us, I thought the guys played hard and fought for 90 minutes. We had our chances, but unfortunately Sheboygan came out on top.”
Sophomore Justin Howe has missed the last two games due to an injury suffered in the season opener against Xavier on August 22. Howe was the leading scorer on the Pirates’ JV squad last season and was expected to add some offensive firepower to this year’s varsity squad. According to Herber, it appears that Howe has a slight stress fracture in his foot, an injury that will sideline him for at least two weeks.
Pecore, who had four goals and an assist in Bay Port’s 5-3 victory over Fox Valley Lutheran on August 28, was hounded all night by an aggressive Golden Raiders’ team.
“It was a tough game,” said Pecore. “We finally got an opportunity with the penalty kick…the other team was talking, trying to get into my head, but I stayed composed and put it in the corner and got the job done.”
The Pirates return to FRCC action again on September 7 when they host De Pere.
