Boys soccer: Outlaws stun Cougars with last-minute goal as spectators return

With his left foot, the sophomore Eckert kept his composure and drove the ball into the left corner of the net to give Sisters a 2-1 win over Mountain View in a nonleague boys soccer match Thursday night at Sisters High School.

With fans finally back in the stands, the excitement was palpable.

“It felt perfect, I thought it was going to go in and it did,” said Eckert, whose game-winning goal was his first varsity goal. “There was so much excitement. Everyone was so hyped, I was very hyped. It felt great after the game, everyone was giving me hugs, it just felt great.”

The goal in the game’s closing minutes against Class 6A Mountain View gave the Class 4A Outlaws their third win in as many games. Three games into its eight-game schedule, Sisters has already eclipsed its win total from a season ago when it won just two matches.

“Watching us warm up I was a little nervous, we seemed a little lackluster,” said Sisters coach Jeff Husmann. “But boy, that first half we came out with the gas pedal on and just brought energy.”

In the game’s 30th minute, Richard Huffman intercepted a clear attempt from Mountain View’s goalkeeper then snuck it by him to break the scoreless tie.

“That is how a lot of (Huffman’s) goals are, just hound, hound and press as the high striker just challenging every ball,” Husmann said.

Shortly after falling behind a goal, the Cougars (2-1) had a golden opportunity to tie the game with a penalty kick, but Parker Harrison’s attempt ricocheted off the right post.

“Those are young mistakes,” said Mountain View coach Don Emerson, whose team dropped its first game of the season. “Missing PKs, making a bad pass out of the back, that is what happens when you have a young team. But that is stuff that we can fix moving forward. But even though we lost, I’m glad to get out of here playing well.”

Both teams’ attacks stalled until late in the second half, when Mountain View’s Owen Behnke scored off a crossing pass into the box to tie the game 1-1. But the Cougars could not hang on for the tie due to Eckert’s heroics.

After Eckert’s goal, a leaping save in the final minute by Sister senior goalkeeper Nathaniel Alvarez sealed the victory for the Outlaws, who were running on fumes toward the end.

“Fatigue was part of the game but we really leaned on each other,” Husmann said. “We only had two weeks (of practices before the season started) so the base fitness wasn’t there. We just had to dig deep, dig deep.”

The added energy might have been found from the new addition that had not been seen during the first 10 days of the high school sports season — fans in the stands.

Thursday was the first day in which spectators were allowed to attend high school games since competition returned on March 1. Before Thursday, parents like Marty and Jamie Kaczmarek, whose son Tate is a sophomore on the Sisters team, had to resort to watching games on livestreams or from the parking lot.

“I am just really happy to be back,” Marty Kaczmarek said.

“It is good for the parents to bring the support, which is also needed,” Jamie Kaczmarek said.

While most schools used some sort of automated online stream of the game during the first 10 days of the season, even if the quality of the picture was solid, it still was not close to the same feel as cheering from the stands.

“It was frustrating because it kept buffering and we would miss a lot of the game,” Jamie Kaczmarek said. “It was not the same at all. It was very frustrating.”

After the game, the Outlaws took a victory jog across the field to thank the modest-sized crowd on hand who had missed seeing their first couple of games live.

“You could see our excitement,” Husmann said. “That was a really big win for us. For us to be 3-0, with a win over a quality 6A school, it feels pretty good.”