On a cold night Tuesday, Dec. 1, at Mingus Union High School, its boys soccer team could not recover from the first five minutes of the season opener against Bradshaw Mountain High School.
Those first five minutes were when the Bears pushed in two goals, and the Marauders could only respond with six shots on goal in a 3-0 loss.
“Even a minor mistake usually doesn’t cost you a goal like that, especially that early,” Behlow said. “It just went boom-boom, and it was in.”
Sophomore Andrew Kulis, in his first full game in goal after playing behind senior Oscar Rodriguez last season, kept MUHS close with diving, athletic saves for the other 35 minutes of the first half and at the 19- and seven-minute marks of the second half.
“Catlike” was the adjective head coach Calvin Behlow used to describe the performance of Kulis, a three-sport starter for the Marauders. “Probably one of the best [goal]keepers I’ve ever seen.”
But the relentless attack the first 11 minutes of the second half by the Bears — at Division II, a division larger than the Marauders — eventually found a seam, knocking a goal inside the right post at close range with 9:07 to play to seal their fate.
“It put us back on our heels,” head coach Calvin Behlow said. “We are not used to that kind of attack.”
Although Behlow tried junior Dylan Finger as a second forward in the first half, for most of the second half, he played just his son Zeke, a sophomore, at striker.
The strategy couldn’t connect despite a penalty kick with 24 minutes to play in which Behlow found junior midfielder Luis Hernandez one-on-one with the Bears goalkeeper five yards away, on the left baseline.
“I know what we should look like, and I didn’t think we were there,” Calvin Behlow said. “We need to shift things up.
“I’ve been hard on them. Our shooting drills for practice are very precise and very strong.”
Hernandez, frustrated that neither he nor returning midfield starter, senior Martin Hernandez, could break through, eventually was too hard on himself, wobbling and collapsing to the Bright Field turf with 11:42 to play and stopping the game for about five minutes.
He would recover by the end of the game on the sidelines. The team will need him, Martin Hernandez and Behlow healthy, as they are the only core for the Marauders to build around.
“I probably have 75 percent of my players that had never played a varsity game before,” Calvin Behlow said. “Now they know what it looks like.”
By Tuesday, Dec. 8, at Scottsdale Christian Academy, Behlow wants that look to include junior Daniel Reyes, a new center midfielder working his way into the Marauders’ lineup.
“Second year at Mingus, and he just showed up,” Behlow said. “Special kind of player — Hector Zapata from last year.”
Rodriguez, Zapata and eight other seniors graduated after going undefeated in Section I of Division III.
Part-time midfielders last season, senior Elijah Clark and junior Devyn Spitzke, will battle for full-time starting positions with freshman Jovany Garcia and sophomore Cayden Ontiveros this winter, while senior defenders Uriel Delgado, Cristian Lazaro and Jesus Lopez assume greater roles in the Marauders’ back half.
But Zeke Behlow and the two Hernandezes are the only full-time holdovers from last season’s varsity, which was coming off a state quarterfinal loss to the eventual state runner-up, Coronado High School.
“We’ve talked about it quite a few times: We’re going to get less shots on goal, so we’d better make them count,” Calvin Behlow said. “We didn’t hit many balls over the top. Everything we hit was good, hard, and right at the goal.”
But the aggressiveness of the deeper Bears overwhelmed the less-experienced Marauders on Dec. 1.
“They were a great team, tactically,” Behlow said. “They played all 11 players, [and] their keeper wasn’t afraid to put the ball on the ground.
“I was expecting this type of a game. It made us realize how much better we need to get.”
With just 11 games left on a Marauders schedule free of midseason tournament play, that steepens the learning curve for Behlow’s team.
“We’ll get our opportunities,” he said. “They’ll go in.
“I’ve never had a Mingus team that doesn’t work hard. We didn’t always play good soccer, but we worked hard for all 80 minutes. I’m happy with that, win or lose.”
For the full schedule and more photos, please see the Wednesday, Dec. 2, issue of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
