Thursday, October 1st was SENIOR NIGHT for the Superior Spartans as we hosted the Duluth Marshall Hilltoppers. All nine seniors were honored and featured at halftime with their parents. The JV team also recognized the three JV seniors. It was a special and memorable night, and a beautiful one for soccer.
Pictured above was our starting 11, including all 9 seniors! They did great to start the game and it wasn't until we subbed in our usual starters when we made our first major mistake. A corner kick was given to Marshall, and they took advantage by scoring a goal for a 1-0 lead in the 13th minute. It wouldn't last long. Junior captain Marc Pagnucci got the Spartans on the board with a twisting rocket shot after an assist from freshman Christian Smith. That tied the game at 1-1 in the 21st minute. Just seven minutes later, it was Pagnucci sending a ball over the top of the defense to senior captain Spencer Kidd - who neatly headed the ball over the Marshall goalie to give Superior a 2-1 lead. How many times have we seen that connection? The lead held for the rest of the half, and we enjoyed honoring our seniors and their families at halftime.
The second half continued with the same dominance. In the 54th minute, Pagnucci struck again with a freekick laser that went into the lower left corner of the goal. The defense opted not to use a "wall" on the play, and Pagnucci made them pay. In the 77th minute, Pagnucci had another free kick. This time sending in a beautiful ball into the goal area that was headed along by junior Henry Haugen to give us the final score of 4-1 Spartans. It was a nice conference win to improve the Spartans record to 11-2-1 on the season and 3-1-1 in the conference.
The JV team also picked up a win against Marshall. The game started slow but eventually the Spartans broke through with a cross into the goal area coming from freshman Rylan Sumption, that ball was headed over by senior Griffin Dallum, it came right to sophomore Demion Campbell who shot past the goalie for a 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, Superior was facing several injuries. Two of our regular starters were out, and two more starters were lost during the game. That included starting goalie, freshman Liam Perrault. He made two saves but was taken out of the game in the middle of the first half. Freshman Nathan Madsen was brought in for his first action in goal all season. He just recently returned from a finger injury! Just before halftime, the Hilltoppers were able to score on a high looping corner kick to tie the game 1-1 at half. But in the second half, Superior struck back on a corner kick as well. This time it was Rylan Sumption's corner directly to freshman Henry Farell, who finished clean for the winning goal. Madsen made some spectacular saves and along with the defense held on for the victory! JV improves to 7-8 on the season.
Both teams head to Eau Claire North on Saturday for a triangular matchup. Varsity and JV will play Wisconsin Rapids at 11:30am. After a short break, both teams will then face Eau Claire North at 3:00pm. Let's go Spartans!
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