By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter

On Tuesday night the Merrill soccer team hosted conference opponent D.C. Everest in their first meeting of the season. Merrill would give a good fight, however two early goals for Everest would be enough to get them the 2-0 win over the Jays.

Merrill head coach Erich Wallace gave some insight on the early parts of the game saying, “We tried a new formation to man-mark two of their better strikers, but it ended up not paying off because Everest scored twice early. I switched them back to our normal formation and we ended up holding them scoreless for around 75 minutes, but were unable to score ourselves.”

Everest would get on the board in the second minute of the game, scoring on a rebound after a shot deflected by Merrill keeper Mason Gebert. It took Everest only a couple minutes to score their second goal of the game, coming off a give and go pass to create a one on one with the Merrill keeper, who would not be able to get a hand on the ball as it hit the back of the net for a goal. Neither team would score for the rest of the game as Everest took the 2-0 win.

“After we switched back to our normal formation and stopped man-marking the possession game did even out a bit,” comments coach Wallace, “but Everest’s well organized and tough squad kept us from being able to get any real chances at scoring. Overall, I was happy with our effort in keeping a solid rival to a 2-0 game, our defense played very well, and Mason Gebert had some spectacular saves, but we needed to generate more offense. Senior forward Brendan Root was out with a hamstring injury and our younger forwards did a nice job, but we just couldn’t break the threshold to really threaten Everest.”

Merrill will look to bounce back in their next conference match coming up next Tuesday, as they host Wausau West at 7 p.m.