BY RICH PALZEWIC
SPORTS EDITOR
SUAMICO – A tie is not a win, but the Bay Port boys’ soccer team has to be happy with its Sept. 27 game against Green Bay Preble.
Despite leading 1-0 at the half, the Pirates had to settle for a 1-1 draw against the No. 6 ranked Hornets in a Fox River Classic Conference game at Bay Port High School.
Junior Justin Howe got the only goal of the game for Bay Port in the 23rd minute before Preble got the equalizer 9 minutes into the second half to end the scoring.
“I’m happy with the tie,” said Bay Port head coach Travis Herber, whose team hasn’t beaten the Hornets since 2014. “We will take it, but obviously we had a chance to win the game as well. On their goal, we just couldn’t clear it out of the box. We had chances, but it’s good for our young team and our confidence moving forward.”
After starting the season 2-5-1, the Pirates (7-5-2 overall, 2-2-1 FRCC) have now gone 5-0-1 in their last six games and are playing some inspired soccer.
“We have a lot of new faces this season,” Herber said. “I want to say we graduated 11 or 12 seniors from last year and we only have one or two starters back. It’s a young nucleus of kids on the field, but we think we’ve found the right rotations now.”
Howe missed a good chunk of time last year with an ankle injury and then a concussion, but he scored his 10th goal of the season when he beat the Preble (11-1-4, 5-0-1) goalie one-on-one with a shot.
“It’s too bad that Justin was injured a bit last year because him and (FRCC player of the year) Griffin Pecore could have really done some special things,” said Herber. “He plays hard and has great ability. He has the tools to be a very special player here for the next two years. He can flat out play and he’s fun to watch.”
Bay Port had a golden opportunity to go up 2-1 with about 26 minutes remaining in the contest, but freshman Payton Schilz’s blast from the top left corner of the penalty box caromed off the crossbar and out of play.
Despite the strong effort by his young team, Herber feels his squad can play even better.
“I’ve been around quite a few years in playing against good teams like Preble,” Herber added. “When we go up against a good team like this, the kids have the mindset to just play kickball and send the ball out of the zone. I knew if we were going to have a chance to win, we couldn’t play kickball for 45 minutes with them in the second half. I think if we had passed and tried to possess a little more, we would have had some more opportunities to score.”
The Pirates will return to FRCC action when they travel to Ashwaubenon Tuesday, Oct. 2, to take on the Jaguars.
