Huskies soccer off to strong start to early season

Michigan Tech defender Olivia Gette controls the ball during a scrimmage earlier this season at Kearly Stadium in Houghton.

By DAVER KARNOSKY

dkarnosky@mininggazette.com

HOUGHTON — For the first time since 2021, the Michigan Tech Huskies soccer team has started the season 2-0, thanks to a pair of 1-0 wins over St. Cloud State and Minnesota-Duluth over the weekend on the road. Michigan Tech won the battle of the Huskies on Thursday before defeating Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday.

While she is happy that her team is off to a great start, coach Melissa Kuhar knows there is still plenty of things for her team to work on over the next week before they take on Northwood on Tuesday, Sept. 17.

“It’s nice to come off of the opening weekend and have two wins out of it,” she said. “There’s a lot to work on. That’s definitely the case, but, yeah, I can’t complain about a 2-0 start against two pretty good teams.

“St. Cloud ended up beating Northern (Michigan) on Sunday, so that just says how good they were. That was a hard-fought battle, and then Duluth was a challenge for us a little bit. We did not come out to play the way we wanted to, but we ended up finding a way to win, which was nice.”

Coming into the season, Kuhar knew that offense was something that could be at a premium for the Huskies given that last season’s top scorer, Seulgi Lee transferred out. Senior forward Julia Pietila helped sort out some of that with a timely goal on Saturday against the Bulldogs.

While she might have wanted her goal to be more pretty in nature, Pietila scored, and right now, that is all Kuhar is concerned about.

“It was nice to get her a goal,” said Kuhar. “She had lots of chances on Thursday, too. It was nice to just finally get her to kind of crack through, and get one. She says it’s not the prettiest of goals, but, to me, it was a beautifully placed ball. Sometimes you don’t have to have a lot of power behind it. It just has to go, go through in the right area.

“It’s a big confidence boost for her, I think. Hopefully the momentum carries into the next handful of games, and she can get some more, because she’s definitely going to be a big person we have to rely on up there to get some goals.”

Defensively, the Huskies had to protect that 1-0 lead for about 43 minutes against the Bulldogs. Kuhar was pleased with the team’s defensive effort in the win.

“I trust our defense,” she said. “They put together two shutouts, which I will never complain about, a shutout. As a former goalkeeper, that’s my favorite thing. (The goal) came early, but I’m glad we kind of put one on the board, instead of dragging the game out. It was just a hard-fought battle.

“We still had chances in that second half. We still could have cracked through a couple more times, but it was a little stressful, but I have all the trust and faith in this team. They were able to weather the storm that Duluth kind of had.”

One area of the game that Kuhar was really excited about was how well the Huskies were able to play in the game’s closing 20 minutes, especially during the second game of the weekend.

“You looked out there with 20 minutes left, Duluth was walking around like they were tired,” she said. ” I feel like I was able to sub a good amount of people, especially on Saturday. That kind of gave us some depth, and we were able to kind of just outlast them.”

Of course, two shutouts also meant that junior keeper Bri Barrows did everything that was asked of her over the course of the weekend. She made three saves against St. Cloud and five against Minnesota-Duluth.

“She came up with a clutch one against St. Cloud kind of in those last couple minutes,” Kuhar said. “It easily could have been a 1-0 game without that (in favor of them). That (position) battle’s still going on. Bri had a good showing. Our other goalkeeper is coming off of an injury still, but hopefully should be healthy heading into practice. That’s still a battle, no one’s job is solidified yet. (We are) still trying to kind of keep that competitive there. But, Bri had a good weekend, so that definitely helps her case.”

In Thursday’s game, sophomore midfielder Reilly Lovercheck scored in the game’s 75th minute to put Michigan Tech in front. Kuhar likes what she is seeing out of the second-year player.

“She’s a workhorse,” said Kuhar. “She’s going to keep going. She doesn’t stop. It was nice that she was able to get a goal. At halftime, I told them, a pinky toe can score a goal and win this game, and I’m pretty sure it was pinky toe that scored. I think she’d even say that too.

“She’s just going to battle and give everything she has. She’s a pretty athletic kid, so I don’t really have to worry about that too much. She sacrificed her body, and slid to get that ball. (She was) a player that really didn’t play a lot last year, (so this was) a confidence boost.”

Kuhar feels that the early season is a chance for the entire team to build some confidence.

“These first five games of our season are going to be just that kind of confidence-building,” she said. “So far, so good, but I think there’s a lot more I can get out of (them). (I’m) still trying to find kind of the top three that work really well together. I think that’s kind of the trick, and that makes coaching hard, but I think it’s kind of the beauty of coaching as well.”

UP NEXT

The Huskies are off until Tuesday, Sept. 17, when they travel to face Northwood at 12 p.m.