Late goal lifts O’Gorman over Brookings boys

BROOKINGS A late goal from OGorman led the Knights to a 2-1 victory over the Brookings boys soccer team on Thursday night at Fishback Soccer Park.

The Knights scored the game-winning goal with just under five minutes to play and kept the Bobcats out of the net the rest of the way.

In the second half we competed much better than in the first half, said Brookings head coach Reece Weber. I feel like we battled well and challenged well. The intensity was high, but I feel like we got a bit unlucky there at the end. We looked a little bit gassed and tired and we had some guys that were hurt on the bench so we were kind of on our last limbs. It was kind of unlucky to concede a goal there at the end, but I feel like the boys left it all out on the field today.

OGorman got on the board early in the first half as the Knights took a 1-0 lead just over minutes into the game.

Brookings would then tie the game in the 63rd minute as Kyler Soost found the back of the net. He was assisted by Griffin Bachman. Weber said he thought his team did a good job of switching things up at halftime and that led to the tying goal.

That was a big momentum thing for us. We talked at halftime about switching the momentum and then when we do that, can we carry that through the rest of the game. When we gave up the goal early, we let that carry into the first half. That really motivated us and then I think we really started taking it to them the rest of the game after that equalizer, Weber said.

Soost had two shots on goal and Connor Shelden had one shot on goal. Forrest Giard had four shots and Keller Peterson had two shots.

This was the second-straight loss by one goal for the Cats and theyre now 1-2-1 on the season. Brookings hosts Watertown on Aug. 28 at 4 p.m. and Weber said his team needs to dig deeper in these close games if they want to come out on top or earn draws.

We have to find a way to capitalize on these games that are up for grabs. Those were two games where it stings to walk away with a 2-1 defeat. When the game is up for grabs, we have to figure it out, we have to dig deep and we have to play for a full 80 minutes to get the three points, Weber said.