REED CITY — The script at Wednesday’s soccer game between Fremont and Reed City was a familiar one, unfortunately for the Coyotes.
Reed City (2-10) hung tough most of the game, but in the final portion of the Central State Activities Association contest, the Packers (2-5) exploded for several goals and a 7-0 win.
It’s a scenario that’s happened to the Coyotes (2-1) several times this season. They trailed Fremont only 2-0 at halftime.
It stayed that way until the 22:40 mark of the second half when Fremont added a goal and then scored less than a minute later. The Packers scored three goals in the game’s final 10 minutes including two scores from Chris Roesler.
“We started out moving the ball better than we have before and we made some adjustments in practice to string shorter passes together rather than booting and running,” Reed City coach Doug Emington said. “We were making progress after awhile. But when they scored the goals, we started to go back to our old ways. To be fair, we’ve only had one practice working on doing it that way.”
Fremont coach Tim Ward said his Packers were able to eventually wear down the Coyotes.
“We needed to settle down our play,” Ward said. “We weren’t distributing the ball well. In the second half, we spread the field out and it opened the middle for us. We passed the ball around and spread out the defense. That opened up the five second-half goals.”
Brandon Wirth had a strong game on both ends of the field. Early in the second half, when Schultz got caught out of the net, Wirth made a diving save to keep it at 2-0. Late in game, he took the ball down field on the right sideline and fired a long shot that just missed the mark.
Micah Whittle had three saves for Fremont. But he couldn’t compare to counterpart Silas Schultz, who had an impressive game, and perhaps his best effort of the season, Emington said.
“He definitely saved us from getting mercied,” Emington said.
Reed City plays at Big Rapids on Wednesday.
