Wolfpack Defense Not Enough to Hold Off the Lions

Ellendale, ND – The Oak Hills Wolfpack traveled to Trinity Bible College on Saturday for their third of four matchups this year against the Lions. The previous match up gave Oak Hills their first win in program history, so the Wolfpack were hungry to try for their second win.

Coach Juni had a game plan to deal with the Lions, "We had a plan in place to deal with their leading goal scorer and were able to execute that plan pretty well. He had scored 5 goals against us in the prior two matchups and we were able to hold him to 1 goal on Saturday."

A new player to the TBC roster threw an unknown into the mix, and while their game plan accounted for the Lions top attacker, it did not account for the new blood and the speed that came with. "Unfortunately, the necessary adjustment we had to make was at the cost of us sacrificing most of our offensive positioning and we weren't able to create more than one really good goal scoring chance," said Coach Juni.

Only giving up one goal in the first half, there was the opportunity to bring the score level in the opening of the second half, but tired legs and the game plan shifting away from offensive pressure didn't allow for the Wolfpack to gain much momentum and many scoring opportunities. This allowed the Lions to retain possession for most of the rest of the game, and this allowed them to score two more goals before the final whistle.

On the defensive end for the Wolfpack, there were many chances taken by the Lions that were stopped due to good positioning from Junior, Deacon Bock (Blaine, MN) and freshman, Ben Chavez (Woodbury, MN). Chavez along with fellow Freshman Defenseman, Isaac Korell (Huron, SD) looked to push the ball well after their stops on defense and got the ball up field a few times.

These transition pushes were spear headed by Junior, Colin Schwarz (Blaine, MN) and sophomore, Caleb Hower (Rapid City, SD) who had the closest attempts from the Wolfpack to scoring.

Hower led the team with 7 shots on goal while Schwarz and Korell followed with 2 shots on goal apiece. Defensively, the Wolfpack were led by their goalkeeper, sophomore, Kade Hanson (Thief River Falls, MN) who finished the game with 6 saves.

Coach Juni said, "We look forward to meeting them again for a final game of the season at home on Saturday, November 2nd. We would love to finish the season 2-2 against them."

Photo credited to Ella Gunnerson