SPRINGFIELD – The Millers suffered their first league loss this season, falling 3-0 to North Eugene in boys soccer on Wednesday, Oct. 23 at Silke Field. Springfield, ranked 18th in Class 5A, had started its Midwestern League schedule with victories over league-leader Ashland and Churchill.
Those two victories came after a tough preseason for Springfield, which sat a 2-5-1 before the Midwestern League schedule began.
Head coach Juan Gonzalez points to a game vs. Hillsboro on Oct. 12 as a turning point. The Millers won 4-2, securing their first victory in six games.
Gonzalez said that it looked like the tides were shifting after that game.
“This result gives us a boost of confidence to start our first league game against Churchill,” he said at the time. “Regarding the scores and games that we played, we didn’t play them badly. We just were not finishing. If we keep up this rhythm I am very positive that our league games are going to be different.”
Gonzalez’s intuitive inkling turned out to be true when the Millers began league play with a 3-0 record.
“We played tough teams at the beginning of the season,” Gonzalez said after the loss to the Highlanders. “But the boys were very motivated and so we started to see the results later. The winning streak was all because they had worked very hard this season – with good and bad results – all the credit goes to them. They deserved it.”
Gonzalez attributed the shutout loss to the Highlanders as a byproduct of the early season struggles.
“It was just one after another with those losses,” Gonzalez said. “So it seems like, despite our winning streak, it must’ve gotten to their heads. That’s what I learned from this match today – it’s all mental with them. Because they know and I know they’ve played better than this. The issue was that North scored first and grabbed that momentum and that got to their minds.”
