BOYS SOCCER: Lumberjacks shut out bu West Ottertail United

FERGUS FALLS - After a 5-0 win Friday at Little Falls, the Bemidji High School boys soccer team took a tough 3-0 loss to West Ottertail United on Saturday afternoon.
The Lumberjacks (1-1) were without senior captain and goalkeeper Bruno Cheney, who was out with an injury he suffered on Friday.
Head coach Rick Toward knew he needed to make a sacrifice somewhere and he did so by taking sophomore Linaes Whiting, who scored a goal and two assists Friday, and put him in net.
“With Bruno out and our backup goalkeeper out with a concussion we knew we had to make a sacrifice somewhere,” Toward said. “(Whiting) has messed around in practice in net and we played him there on JV last season. We held them off for a bit, but we ran out of gas.”
Whiting made three saves in the first half as the Storm (1-0) were held scoreless in the first half.
West Ottertail started scoring five minutes into the second half.
“We gave up a foul and made a wall for the free kick,” Toward said. “They beat the wall and our keeper didn’t stand a chance.”
It was 1-0 until the 70 minute mark the Storm got behind the Lumberjacks defense and beat Whiting one-on-one.
They capped the game off in the final minute with a deep shot which made Toward scratch his head afterward.
“It was a long shot from far away,” Toward said. “One of those are you kidding me goals that he wouldn’t be able to make again if he tried.”
The Lumberjacks have little time to dwell on the loss as they play at 7 p.m. Tuesday against Detroit Lakes.
Monday Toward and the team hope to find out the diagnosis of Cheney’s injury, but the team is getting prepared to play for awhile without him.
“We’ll see on Monday whether he’ll be out for the season or in a cast for two weeks,” Toward said.