Win eludes soccer Dawgs, who drop one, tie one

Illness took a toll as a 1-1 tie with La Pine and a 1-2 loss to Santiam Christian last week brought the Creswell Bulldogs’ boys’ soccer record to 1-1-2 in early league play and 1-2-2 overall.
“We’ve got lots of sick players right now, and with that our conditioning was low,” said Creswell Head Coach Brandi Wittenborn.
Against the host La Pine Eagles on Sept. 18, both teams were scoreless until the 70th minute, when senior midfielder and forward Christian Tucker scored off an assist from Brian Clowers to put Creswell up 1-0.
But with three minutes left to play, the Bulldogs received a handball call just inside the box, resulting in a penalty kick that La Pine scored to secure the tie.
“Bad decisions cost us momentum at some points, but we basically outshot them all game — we just couldn’t capitalize,” Wittenborn said.
Jaxson Wilkerson had six saves in goal for the Bulldogs.
Against the visiting Santiam Christian Eagles on Sept. 19, the Dawgs took eight first-half shots to the Eagles’ two, but the score was 0-0 at halftime. Santiam Christian got on the board early in the second period and Creswell answered in the 68th minute.
“Avel (Garcia-Fetter) made a great pass to Christian, who was on the right side and hit a beautiful shot into the far corner (of the net) to tie,” Wittenborn said.
With six minutes remaining, the Eagles punched in the winning shot.
“We had some great attempts — they just didn’t go,” Wittenborn said.
Wilkerson had two first-half saves and four in the second half.
This week, the Bulldogs are on the road at East Linn Christian and Jefferson.
“We had a great practice last Friday and we’re working on extra conditioning and getting healthy,” Wittenborn said. “It’s going to be important for us to be winning games from here on out.”