PELICAN RAPIDS -- The Bemidji High School boys soccer team had a couple of firsts Tuesday night, as Quincy Wilson scored his first varsity goal and Josh Jernigan added his first of the season to help lift the Jacks to a 3-0 road win over Pelican Rapids.
“We love to spread that around,” BHS head coach Rick Toward said of the Jacks offense. “Every team knows about Silas (Hess), everybody knows about Ethan (Mock) and Aidan (Helwig). Those are our top three scorers, (plus) Ben (Hess). So anytime you can put other kids’ names on the scoresheet, that forces other teams who are paying attention to say, ‘All right, they’re not a one-trick pony.’
“...We were able to spread the ball around a little bit, get some guys on the field that can contribute and two of them got their first goals this year.”
Both teams Tuesday dealt with a slick, swampy field with long grass, but the Lumberjacks (10-2) were able to sneak in a quick one in the 10th minute when Logan Mitchell opened the scoring, assisted by Paau Mesegue.
“It was just kind of an ugly game all the way round because the ball was not rolling true, people were slipping and falling on both teams everywhere,” Toward said. “It was just almost a comedy of errors the way the game was played.”
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After a sloppy first half, Bemidji picked it up in the final 40 minutes for two more goals. Aspen Galdamez made a few moves to feed Wilson for a 2-0 lead in the 72nd minute, and Mitchell assisted on Jernigan’s goal in the 79th to put the game away.
“We were better in the second half,” said Toward. “The ball moved much better across the field. Our players made the adjustments that we asked them to make at halftime, but again, the conditions of the field were such that they couldn’t really execute the play as we wanted them to.”
Bemidji’s leading scorer, Silas Hess, took the game off, and Galdamez also took a sharp decrease in minutes, according to Toward, to nurse a couple nagging injuries.
“Today we finished our 12th game, so we’re three-quarters of the way through the regular season,” Toward said. “We need to make sure we’re as healthy as we can be going (into sections), and if that means a game today is a one-, or two- or three-nothing game versus a four-, five- or six-nothing game, we’ll take the three and give him the break.”
Bemidji will take its 3-0 win to Chet Anderson Stadium, where they will host Moorhead on Thursday, Sept. 25, under the lights at 7 p.m.
Bemidji 3, Pelican Rapids 0
BEM 1 2 -- 3
PR 0 0 -- 0
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First half -- 1, BEM GOAL, Mitchell (Mesegue) 10’.
Second half -- 2, BEM GOAL, Wilson (Galdamez) 72’; Jernigan (Mitchell) 79’.
