New Coach, New Faces

The Lakeland soccer team brought in new coaches this year, and so far, the team’s rebuilding has been a struggle for the players and coaches alike. Both the boys and girls teams have tried to regather in hopes to become a successful program. Each team has shown a lot of growth and has played their hearts out. Regardless of any scores or results, the teams have played very well in their first season with the new faces on the coaching staff. 

The boy’s team have spread across seven goals in their first seven games and have gotten off to a shaky 0-5-2 start. They started the season with a 5-0 loss to the Moscow Bears on Aug. 11. 

They scored their first goal of the season in an 8-1 loss against the Couer d’Alene Vikings in the home opener on Aug. 24.

On Aug. 26, in the third game of the season, the Hawks played a good game and tied with the Timberlake Tigers, 2-2.

Lakeland’s offense seemed to have woken up after their fourth game of the year, which was a 3-2 loss to the Lewiston Bengals on Aug. 31. 

The Hawks fell to Lake City in a rough 13-0 loss on Sep. 2.

The Sandpoint Bulldogs defeated the Hawks 4-0 on Sep. 8. 

In their most recent game, Lakeland pulled off their second draw of the season in a 2-2 game against Moscow on Sep. 11. 

The Lakeland boy’s varsity team has spread across seven goals throughout the season. Garrett Love, Hudson Drake, Austin Parks, and Jacob Ukich were each among the group of players who have scored so far. 

The Hawks next play on Thursday at 4 pm on the road against Post Falls. 

Under their new head coach, Kevin Rogge, the girl’s team has also had its ups and downs in the first season. However, sophomore defender Caroline Gallus said, “Rogge has been a great coach all year, and everyone knows it. We have gotten a lot better since tryouts, and there has been a clear difference since then. This is our first year together, so there will obviously be some struggles. However, I think we will continue to improve. Many people assume that it is frustrating to be losing more than we would hope to. However, for me, it is fun to just be in the game and enjoy each game and strive to become a better athlete. We would prefer to win a few of the games that we have lost. However, the future is very bright for our soccer program under coach Rogge.”

Caroline also mentioned that she was very surprised that she was announced as captain this season, but she has played very well with fellow captain Harley See. 

In the opening game of the season for the girls, they took an 8-0 loss against the Moscow Lady Bears.

The Lady Hawks lost their second game of the young season, 17-0, against the Couer d’Alene Lady Vikings, falling to 0-2. 

In their third game, the Lady Hawks scored their first two goals of the season and stayed in the game until they ran out of energy in the late minutes of the second half and fell short, 4-2 against Timberlake. 

The Lewiston Lady Bengals defeated the Lady Hawks in the fourth game of the season. There is no available information for this game. 

Lakeland took their fifth straight loss to start the season in a 12-0 game against Lake City. Coach Rogge said, “Lake City is by far the biggest, fastest, best passing team we have seen so far.”

Sandpoint defeated the Lady Hawks 9-1, resulting in yet another tough loss after leading 1-0 early in the first half. When asked his thoughts on the game, coach Kevin Rogge had a lot to say. He said, “This was our best game so far. We scored first and held them off for 20 minutes, which is huge for us. Towards the end of the first half, we got tired again with only a few subs and let a few goals in. But having a lead, we really played hard and looked good as a team. Claire Howard scored the goal, and Ruby McIntosh, our JV goalie, stepped up and had a great game with a good number of saves as she is learning this new position.” 

Despite a lack of wins on paper, coach Rogge and many other players on the team are very optimistic about where this team is going in the future. According to coach Rogge, senior Claire Howard, sophomore Caroline Gallus, and freshman Evelyn Bowie have been the main key players this season.