BEMIDJI – It’s often that a highly-billed regular-season game comes with more to be desired. Tuesday night’s Section 8-3A boys soccer contest at Bemidji Middle School wasn’t one of those times. The BHS boys soccer team fell 3-2 against St.
Michael-Albertville, the two-time defending section champs in what the Lumberjacks hope, in some respects, was an 8-3A Championship preview. “We went down to their field last year and got wiped by them,” head coach Rick Toward said. “Today, we did pretty well.
We created enough chances to get more. But it was our mistakes that cost us the three goals we gave up. They’re kids, I get that.
They’re going to make mistakes. We created enough chances to get more goals than we did. We just have to clean up the mistakes.
” Both teams traded empty first-half scoring chances until Femi Omotayo paid off a late first-half push by the Knights in the 39th minute. Omotayo made a quick turn to his right after receiving a pass from Alex Hernandez in the middle of the 18-yard box and beat keeper Kellen Heuer to the low-right side of the goal to put STMA ahead 1-0. Bemidji opened the second half with a flare, with Isaac Stone delivering a free kick just outside of the penalty area to Charlie Zellmann.
STMA was caught off guard, expecting Reed Johnson to take the free kick. But Stone took it and found Zellmann. Though, his header missed wide in the 41st minute.
While many of the Lumberjacks started on the pitch last year, Dash Hiller wasn’.