While the Mingus Union High School boys soccer team lost its home game against Coconino High School on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 3-1, the players were overall pleased with how the game went.
The Marauders scored the first goal in the first part of the first half.
The Panthers tied it up by half time and scored its next two points early in the second half.
“We held them way better than we did last year,” senior and team captain Landon Rolfes said. Last season, the Marauders lost to Coconino 8-0. “We kept our cool,” he said. “In all my other years, …everything would be everywhere, everybody would be [mad], everybody would be fighting. This year, we kept our cool.”
Rolfes said the team often “shuts down halfway through.”
That’s what happened in the Marauders’ games the previous week against the Prescott Badgers and the Bradshaw Mountain Bears, losing 9-0 and 6-0, respectively.
Following the game, Coconino was ranked No. 1 in the region, the Bears were ranked No. 2 and the Badgers were No. 3. The Marauders are ranked No. 7 and have gone 07-1 so far this season.
“I’m just proud of them for sticking it out and not shutting down,” Rolfes said.
He said he’s been playing soccer his whole life. Starting with club soccer until it was offered as a team in school.
Through his soccer playing, he said he’s grown most in his confidence and is pleased with his ability to handle the ball. His sophomore brother, Tyce, said he’s been playing about the same.
“I played my whole life,” Tyce Rolfes said, “and played a year of club ball, then I played middle school and high school.”
The next home game for the Marauders is on Monday, Feb. 2, against the Flagstaff Eagles, currently ranked No. 4, and shortly following that will be a home game on Wednesday, Feb. 4, against the Mohave Thunderbirds. Both games begin at 6 p.m.
“The boys are working hard,” Head Coach Missy Rolfes said. “They’re putting in effort, they’re doing what we asked, and they’re working together good.”
She said the biggest thing the athletes have been working on is building basic soccer skills while working together as a team.
This is Rolfes’ second season as head coach and she said building a team can be difficult.
“This year we do have a large group of seniors, as you can see, and we’ve got a nice little core group that’s kind of done some club play together, and then the team,” she said. “So more time together, which is helpful.”
The team had two away games before the next home game. One on Friday, Jan. 23, after press time, at Thunderbird High School, and one on Wednesday, Jan. 28, at Lee Williams High School.
The boys went to the girls’ game on Thursday, Jan. 22, against the Thunderbird Titans, to support them during their Senior Night. The girls’ ended in a 0-0 tie after referees said a goal kicked at the last second of overtime didn’t count.
