By Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Adam Everroad picked a perfect time to score his first goal of the season for the Trinity Lutheran boys soccer team.
His goal with 1:34 remaining in Thursday’s home match gave the Cougars are 3-2 win over Hauser for their first win of the season.
“I scored it from the center of the field with my right foot,” he said. “Andrew Bell got a ricochet, and I got to it and put a foot on it and got it in. It feels good.”
Everroad credited the win to teamwork.
“We played phenomenal,” he said. “We were down and we came back. We had good attitudes and got it done.”
Trinity coach Todd Jack said, “We just kept pressuring the ball. We got it out wide, got a cross in. The cross squirted out to the top of the box. We had a player miss the ball but had a second player was on top of it and it went in.”
Jack said playing hard until the end is something the team has been preaching all week this week after a tough beginning to the season.
“The boys had had hard games. We’ve had some success in those games but ultimately no W’s yet,” he said. “Finally they were able to have that resolve and fight through the adversity and we got the W.”
Hauser held a 1-0 lead at the half on a goal by Cephus Zulu at 24:35.
The Cougars had plenty of chances to tie the match but missed all 11 of their shots in the first half.
Trinity drew even on a free kick by Andrew Lemming at 28:24 of the second half.
That kick came from straight on just outside the 30 box as the ball sailed over the Hauser goalie’s hands.
Lemming had another free kick from right center and again saw his kick elude the goalie’s hands at 15:08 to put the Cougars on top 2-1 before Ethan House tied the match at 2-all with 9:43 remaining.
Jack said Lemming’s plays were outstanding.
“Those were incredible plays,” he said. “We’ve been telling him since the beginning of the year that he just needs to let the ball go out of his feet and finally he did that today and you saw what the result was.
“Our defense started off a little bit shaky. As soon as (Hauser’s) first goal went in I think they kind of shook out of the haze they were in and they decided they needed to get some work done in order to get the game won today.”
Toughness was the name of the game for the Cougars.
“Our play was tough all around,” Jack said. “We had a lot of guys that circled in there. I have one senior captain (Connor Sims) that’s nursing an injury so getting his minutes in was a little tough finding the space in the big hole that he leaves when he’s not in there.”
The Cougars had 17 shots for the match and Jack said, “They’re getting that picture a lot more of how to get into the spaces and find the openings for the attacking game.”
The Cougars (1-5) will be idle until Sept. 11 when they travel to Bedford North Lawrence, and Everroad said his team needs to continue to practice hard.
“Teamwork will win matches,” he said.