STURGIS – The Aberdeen Central boys’ soccer program got off to an “ideal” start to the 2027 campaign Friday evening, posting a 3-0 shutout of Sturgis on the road.
“An ideal start,” said Golden Eagle coach Lance Mohr. “Guys got off the bus. It was kind of one of those days where there was a lot of distractions, a lot of things going on just being out in Sturgis during the rally and things like that. We handled all that really well and focused on the game and got a good result.”
Linus Johnson scored early in each half, and Gus Bjerknes found the net with a little over 10 minutes to play in the first half to complete the Golden Eagle scoring.
Mohr said it was good to see two seniors get rolling early in the season.
“Sturgis is a good team,” he said. “We had a couple really good individual moments that kind of separated us, which was good to see. You want your best players doing that. That’s kind of what happened today.”
While the result was a favorable one for the Golden Eagles, Mohr said he was most impressed with his team’s approach to the game as a whole.
“They were focused, they were locked in, so it was a good start,” he said. “We avoided a lot of lulls. When you only play against yourselves … for the first two weeks of the season, things can get a little stale.”
There are some nuances, he added, that the Golden Eagles will need to work out.
“There’s a lot of opportunities we had where you could just tell it’s a lot of new faces playing with each other,” Mohr said. “One’s zigging, one’s zagging.”
Colton Swearingen earned the shutout in goal for the Golden Eagles, aided by a rebuilt defensive line that had what Mohr described as a great first outing.
“Our back line, we have some new faces back there and they did a good job of winning the flighted balls, the 50-50s, dealing with a lot of the situations they had,” Mohr said. “I thought they did a great job.”
Central is back on the pitch quickly, facing Spearfish at 10 a.m. (MDT) today. The Spartans earned a 2-1 victory over Tea Area in its opener on Friday.
