The Watertown High School boys and girls soccer teams concluded their season-opening trip out West with two games against Spearfish on Saturday.
The boys won 2-1 against Spearfish to complete their 2-0 road trip, which included another 2-1 win against Sturgis on Friday.
After their 4-1 win on Friday in Sturgis, the Arrow girls lost 0-2 to Spearfish on Saturday.
The Watertown teams are on the road for two more games this week: visiting Yankton on Tuesday and Sioux Falls Roosevelt on Friday.
Football preparation: A look at some big games from the Watertown and Aberdeen soccer teams
Watertown Boys
The Arrows opened the season on Friday with goals from Riley Fischer and Braxten Endres and an assist from Ty Meidinger in a win over Sturgis. Goalkeeper Owen Muller made four saves.
Fischer scored two more goals, Meidinger another assist and Müller made five saves in Saturday’s win over Spearfish, which scored through an (unintentional) own goal.
“We defended solidly and had great chances and shots,” Watertown coach Jesse Hauck said of the win against Spearfish. “We just need to work on the finishing, but overall it was a good win. We showed great teamwork and communication and made the plays we needed to make.”
Watertown Girls
The Arrows struggled to score early in Friday’s win over Sturgis until Brooklynn Randall broke the ice with an unassisted goal. Katie Fischer scored two more goals and Khloe Landmark one. Claire Schoenmaier assisted on Landmark’s goal. Madison Enstad made five saves in goal.
Watertown had many chances but was unable to capitalize on them in the loss to Spearfish. Enstad made 13 saves.
“Even though we had 15 shots on goal, we couldn’t get the ball in the net,” said Watertown coach Emily Trupe.
The teams of Aberdeen Central
The Aberdeen Central soccer teams also opened their season with Eastern South Dakota Conference games in Pierre.
The Golden Eagles won the boys’ game 2-1 on the game-winning goal by Gus Bjerkness with about six minutes left. Linus Johnson assisted on the goal and Zander Kuhlfeld kept goal.
Pierre won the girls’ game 3-1 against Aberdeen. Gracie Lozenski scored a goal and Bri Fischer provided an assist for the Golden Eagles.
The Aberdeen Central teams will visit Sioux Falls Jefferson on Tuesday and Brookings on Saturday.
Follow Watertown Public Opinion sports reporter Roger Merriam on X (formerly known as Twitter) @PO_Sports or by email: [email protected]
