Boys soccer: Serena bounces back, starts quick in topping Ottawa 4-1

SERENA — The Serena boys soccer team ended a match on the wrong side of the scoreboard for the first time in 16 matches this season on Monday against rival Earlville.

Huskers’ coach Dean DeRango, despite losing a key contributor recently to injury, was looking for his squad to bounce back in Thursday afternoon’s match against visiting Ottawa.

Serena did just that, scoring just over a minute into the match, holding a two-goal lead at the half, and eventually earning a 4-1 win over the Pirates to improve to 16-1 on the campaign.

“We’re now missing starter Braxton Hart with an injury, so we had to move (midfielder) Richie Armour back to defense (played as a freshman) and (forward) Cam Figgins back to midfield,” DeRango said. “We were working with a different alignment than we are used to, but the kids did a great job of adjusting.

“I thought we controlled things pretty well today and bounced back well from losing our first match to Earlville on Monday. Ottawa had a couple of good chances late in the first half and early in the second half, but we were able to add those two goals midway into the second half to give us a little breathing room.

“I thought our defense played well overall, and our guys up front did a good job of making the most of the chances we created.”

The Huskers grabbed the aforementioned control when Eduardo Moncada sent a cross from the right wing to the top of the box, where Hudson Stafford as able to collect in traffic and send a shot that Ottawa keeper Brady Wendt (7 saves) was able to get a hand on but not keep from hitting the back of the net.

Tho hosts made it 2-0 in the 19th minute when Figgins captured the ball near midfield, dribbled to within 15 yards of the goal, chipped around a Pirate defender, and then sent a low shot into the left corner of the net.

Serena keeper Carson Baker (7 saves) made a nice clear on a deflected pass and a point-blank save on a breakaway in the final four minutes of the first half.

“I felt like we came out to start the match sluggish and we let Serena win way too many of the 50/50 opportunities the entire first 40 minutes,” Ottawa coach Kevin Oleson said, his team now 7-13 on the season. “I stressed at halftime that we needed to play with way more confidence with the ball. We talked about knowing where they were going to pass and then execute it. I don’t feel we moved the ball in a positive matter in the opening half, and I reminded them that when we focus on passing and string passes together, we are a pretty solid team.

“We did that in the second half, and it led to a few scoring chances. But we were forced to play up a bit being down two in the second half, and Serena was able to get a couple quick long runs on the counter which ended up turning into goals.

“Serena has a ton of team speed and is very good at going from offense to defense.”

Ottawa had two more good chances in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, but a cross by Christian Solis went untouched through the box, and a chip shot over Baker by Ethan Cela sailed just over the crossbar.

The Huskers made it 3-0 in the 54th minute on Moncada’s blast that deflected in off the post after a fantastic pass from Tanner Faivre. The two minutes later, Faivre scored on a breakaway off a nifty lead pass from Stafford.

Ottawa broke the shutout with six minutes remaining on a penalty kick by Evan Snook.

Up next, Serena will resume last week’s suspended match (lightning) against IMSA in Aurora, with the Titans leading 2-0. A Huskers win would give them the regular-season LTC title. Ottawa plays Sandwich in a consolation match of the Interstate 8 Conference Tournament on Saturday.