Trojan boys’ soccer season ends

The Fairfield boys' soccer team fell 2-1 Monday at Oskaloosa in the first round of the Class 2A substate-6 bracket.

While Fairfield entered the matchup with an overall record of 10-6 versus the 2-13 mark held by the home team Indians, the Trojans were seeded fifth in their group and forced to travel to Osky who was given the No. 4 seed by the state.

'We definitely underrated them and we came into the stadium thinking we were going to win,” admitted junior Leone Gichure. 'I thought our focus was better and right when we got off the bus, we flipped a switch and it showed, it just didn't go our way. If you watched throughout the whole game, we dominated possession 90 percent of the time. The only thing was we weren't getting enough shots.”

Goals

Oskaloosa scored both of their goals on penalties against the Trojans.

'The first one happened in the first half,” explained keeper Maxx Anderson. 'The ref kept calling us for cleats up.”

Senior defenseman Kobe Navesse agreed the two whistles were costly.

'We underestimated them, but we still played hard. We just made two big mistakes.”

'I went to check to check if my wall was in line,” described Anderson, 'but he shot it from about 20-22 yards and by the time I got back to the center, it was coming towards me. I went to dive, but my feel slipped so I got my hands on it but it went between them.”

Fairfield was able to equalize.

'We were working down the field with 1-2 combinations and they played a through ball,” explained Eli Moore. 'The grass was very skippy, so it was very hard to keep control and when I got to the end line I had to kick it back. I saw Landen [Schafer] making the run in, and he kicked it and I saw it going towards Xavier. I was praying that he would put it in and he did.”

'We were moving the ball towards the middle and we went wide a little bit,” recalled Kapijimpanga. 'Eli passed it back to Landen in the middle and he seemed like he was going to shoot it, but it wasn't such a powerful shot and I saw it coming towards me. I stopped the ball, turned my back and shot it in. It was pretty crazy because it tied it up, but I guess it wasn't enough.”

The second penalty went against Brody Angstead who went to clear the ball and missed.

'He kicked the kid in the shins and he fell in the box and got a PK,” explained the junior goalie. 'He shot it to his right, my left, and I saw where it was going so I made the dive and my hand hit the ball but it went in.”

Offseason plans

Anderson

'This summer I plan on going to Creighton for a weekend trip and working with their goalie coach. I also plan on working with our goalie coach, Daniel Ray. He helped me a lot and I plan on working with him all summer and fall and then again in the spring to try to improve. I want to focus on coming our further and with more confidence and then also getting better at PKs.”

Kapijimpanga

'First of all, my grades before everything so I can get A's and B's and get into a decent college for soccer, hopefully a big one. Communication and leadership is something I want to work on. I want to make sure my teammates are 100 percent before I'm 100 percent and we're in the winning stage. I also want to be more technical on the field and see where I can do my best while going 100 percent every time.”

Gichure

'Work on key decisions and finishing.”

Moore

'Reading the game from my [left wing] position and work on my left foot a little more. I can make the simple 5-10 yard passes, but not the 20 yard cross field passes I need to.”