Anton Akse tries to get the ball away from a Thomas McLaren player.
The Manitou Springs boys soccer team ended its three-game scoreless streak and now needs to focus on getting back into the win column.
The Mustangs traveled to Thomas MacLaren on Sept. 16 and lost 4-2 to last year’s Class 2A state runner-up. The loss wasn’t what the Mustangs (2-4 overall) were hoping for, but it was significant in the sense that they have struggled lately when it comes to scoring goals.
That appeared to be the case early in the loss as they had several chances they couldn’t finish. They eventually buried two goals with Anton Akse getting the first and Andrew Rhodes the second.
Scoring is a necessary step for Manitou to turn its season around; now, in terms of getting the wins, that just needs to happen a bit earlier in the game.
“We have to put away chances a lot earlier in the game,” Rhodes said.
“In the Thomas MacLaren game, we had a ton of chances in the first half and just couldn’t finish. That would help us a lot in getting a win.”
The good news for the Mustangs is that they have yet to play a Tri-Peaks League game and have two more non-league games to try to really regain a bit of last year’s form, which got them their first league championship.
“It would’ve helped if we could’ve (broken the scoring drought) two or three games ago,” Rhodes said. “At least so we can figure out some of these kinks. But (before league play) is definitely an ideal time to do it.”
The Mustangs will see the Colorado Springs School on Thursday, Sept. 23, then to take on Arrupe Jesuit on Wednesday, Sept. 29. They’ll then have a six-day layoff before opening Tri-Peaks play against St. Mary’s