T-Birds soccer takes on Beavers in playoff opener

By Pete Watson/News Republic

 

Despite 14-wins in the regular season, perception, more so than reality, says that the Baraboo Thunderbirds boys soccer team isn’t a favorite to emerge victorious from the Division I Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association regional round.

That’s just fine with BHS coach Sean Breitzman.

"The big thing is that a lot of the teams outside of our conference don’t think much of Baraboo," Breitzman said. "The element of surprise will really help us."

The eighth-seeded T-Birds (14-6-2) take on the No.-9 seeded Reedsburg Beavers (10-7-2) today in Reedsburg.

Both teams are looking for the opportunity to move on and play No.-1 seeded Madison West Regents, who battle No. 16 Holmen in their opener.

Given that Baraboo defeated Reedsburg 2-1 in their Badger North Conference meeting on Aug. 25, Breitzman is expecting the same kind of result.

"Ideally, we’d like to concentrate on one game at a time," he said. "But realistically, we have beaten Reedsburg before and we know they are kind of a one-dimensional team. It’s basically a game we should win."

The Beavers are entering the postseason having won six of their last 10 games.

Among conference teams, Reedsburg (53) is second only to Baraboo (63) in goals scored, and is led by the Badger North’s leading scorer, Kevin Sorenson (16 goals, 6 assists). Ryan Thill is the Beavers other playmaker, notching seven goals and one assist this season.

BHS held both players scoreless the last time, and expects to the same today.

"We know they have a couple guys up top that have a lot of points between them," Breitzman said. "But we were able to handle them in the beginning of the season and our defense has really come together since then and throughout the year.

"The biggest thing we can do is to make sure someone is always pressuring them. What most teams that have those kinds of scorers do is they tend to go through those guys and if you can shut them down, you shut down their only way to get the ball up the field."

The T-Birds will counter with its go-to guy, Anthony Hoeschele. Hoeschele, a junior, ranks third in the conference with 15 goals.

But at times this season Baraboo’s offense has sputtered. The squad was held to one goal or less in 10 games.

Though Hoeschele can usually be counted on to show up in the boxscore, Breitzman is hoping a few other players get more involved.

"I’d like to see a lot of others step up," Breitzman said. "Guys like Josh Sarby (10 goals), Kody Mjelde (6) and Emmanuel Perez (9) — we have a lot of potential weapons to utilize. We just don’t want to pigeon hole ourselves with Hoeschele."

Game time is slated for 4 p.m.