MORGANTOWN – Sometimes when you win, you lose, and sometimes when you lose, you win.
To be clear, the Trinity Christian soccer team lost 3-1 to visiting Williamstown on Tuesday. But there was a lot to like about the contest for the Warriors.
First, Trinity was down to just 11 players for the contest. That was a problem because, in soccer, teams play with 11. So, the Warriors (10-5) started the game with no subs. Then in the second half, they lost left back Jaylon Hill to injury. They played final 34 minutes with just 10 players on the field.
“This was our first time out in a week,” Trinity coach Dan Lohmann said. “We won last week against Magnolia and then had an (COVID) exposure. We had practice [Monday], but it wasn’t much. [Tuesday] is the first day we have had this number of people back together in over a week.”
Despite the low numbers, the Warriors gave the Yellowjackets all they could handle in the first half.
Trinity goalkeeper Ben Lohmann was especially impressive as he collected 14 saves in the first half and finished with 20 for the contest.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t come up with one save with 8:13 left in the first half. That’s when Alex Irvin found the back of the net for Williamstown off a penalty kick.
“Ben made some exceptional saves,” coach Lohmann said. “They get a PK and then two other goals. For what they got on net, I am totally fine with the result tonight.”
Williamstown (12-3-1) finished with 39 shots with several of them coming off the feet of senior Gavin Bosgraf. He finished with 11 shots and all of them were met with resistance from the Warriors.
“Our defense played probably its best effort of the entire year,” coach Lohmann said. “We were missing three starters tonight, two of which are significant on the defensive side, so our defenders just played exceptionally well.”
Williamstown put the game away at the beginning of the first half when Harbor Haught scored on a cross from Bosgraf with 35:34 left in the contest and then Bosgraf tucked a shot in the lower left corner for the Yellowjackets final goal of the game.
“I compliment their goalie,” Williamstown coach Jason Hill said. “He took a lot of shots on those wrists.”
The 20 saves are the most in Ben Lohmann’s career and coach Lohmann said he thought his goalkeeper took some important steps forward.
“I knew going into it that I was going to face some shots,” Ben said. “I trust my defense to stop as much as possible.”
Trinity did manage to score in the final minutes as Carmelo Kniska was fed a through ball from Kyle Knight and then Kniska was able to weave his way through some traffic before slipping a ball into the lower-right corner.
The good news for Trinity is they should get at least three players back before sectionals next week. The Warriors return to action on Thursday when they travel to Notre Dame before returning home next Tuesday for a first-round sectional contest.
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