Dakota Valley got off to a stellar start and ended up recording a 10-2 victory over Groton in girls’ soccer action at the Northern State Pavilion on Friday afternoon.
“There were some moments in the game that were smooth and transition periods were good,” said Groton coach Matt Baumgartner. “We had good moments. … I think overall just finding the flow in the environment to feel where other people are going to be on the field is kind of what I think was the best part of what I saw today.”
Dakota Valley senior Sophia Meyer scored a whopping six goals, including five in the first half.
“It feels really good. It definitely feels good to celebrate with my teammates,” Meyer said. “Honestly, I feel like my teammates did a lot of the work. They helped me a lot and they were a big part of each and every one of my goals.”
Meyer scored the first two goals of the game, before Groton cut the lead to one when Brenna Imrie scored on an empty net.
“It was surprising; I thought I was going to miss,” Imrie joked. “It was fun, though. I’m glad to score.”
The next three goals in the game were once again scored by Meyer, and two more Dakota Valley goals before the half left the score at 7-1.
“At half I just said we have to flush it,” Baumgartner said. “We need to continue to be smooth with our operations and things like that. As simple as can be, just continue to play the way we’ve been practicing and just go about it from there.”
The Panthers came out of the half and scored the first three goals, with Isabella Mijangos getting her second of the day, Meyer getting her sixth, and Millie Squier getting her first.
Groton closed the game with seventh-grader Devan Locke producing her team’s second goal of the contest.
Groton is a young team and because of that there will likely be some growing pains, but the Tigers learned some valuable lessons in their season-opener.
“We are a really young team, and we have a game (Saturday) against Sioux Falls Christian. I think we learned to communicate,” Imrie said. “It’s very hard. We have a lot of seniors, but there’s also a lot of younger girls, and it’s their first time playing varsity. So, I think just being able to communicate and talk to each other out on the field (is important).”
Not only is communication going to be a key element, individual players are also learning new positions on the pitch as well.
“We’ve got an eighth-grade goalkeeper (Tori Schuster), so she’s going to have to kind of get beat up,” Baumgartner said. “She needs to see what she needs to see. See the scenarios kind of some after here, and go about it from there.”
Even with a lot of inexperienced players, Imrie expects the team to learn fast.
“We play five games in eight days; we play Lennox the 18th,” Imrie said. “I think by Lennox, we’ll be able to step it up and be better.”
Despite the loss, Baumgartner said it was still a nice experience to get to play on the Northern State pitch.
“I think it’s a really great facility,” Baumgartner said. “It’s cool to see a lot of people in the crowd today, and we’re excited to get back on our home field, too.”
Groton will host Sioux Falls Christian at 1 this afternoon.
