QUINCY — Offense was hard to come by in the Gem City on Saturday.
The Quincy Notre Dame Raiders fell to Normal Community 3-0 in a shutout loss at Advance Physical Therapy Field.
Raiders goalkeeper Carter Hankins played valiantly and made seven saves, but it was not enough.
“They have a lot of seniors on their team,” said Hankins. “We’re a pretty young team right now, especially with a couple of players having injuries. So it was pretty hard keeping up with them. Their physical ability was just a lot better than ours.”
Hankins credited his adrenaline on keeping him going.
“I’m just trying to keep it out of the back of the net,” said Hankins. “I mean, it’s my senior year. We haven’t had a lot of low scoring games against us, so I’m just trying to keep everyone out of the net and trying to get my goals against average down.”
The Ironmen have a much more senior-heavy roster than the Raiders do.
“The first half went really well,” said QND head coach Greg Reis. “We played in their half 50% of the time during the first half. I thought defensively, we played really well. Carter had a couple of nice saves to keep us in it in the first half.”
It was scoreless through much of the first half until the Ironmen deposited a goal in the 38th minute.
“Then we had a couple of defensive breakdowns,” said Reis. “(Sullivan Walker) stepped up on their guy that score the goal. Instead of staying tight, he gave him the step and backed off. When he backed off, it gave the guy the chance to get his head up and slot the ball in. Nick Koetters was trying to get into the angle the psssing zone where he wanted, but Sully gave him too much room and put the ball though and the guy made us pay for it.”
Normal added a pair of goals in the second half.
“We didn’t get enough foot on the ball to get it dislodged from the guy’s foot,” said Reis. “He gets his head up and hits it to the back post, and Nolan Schreacke got beat. He was standing on the wrong side of his guy and that was a nice goal from them. But with our two guys, we should had done a better job with the second ball.”
The Raiders had several scoring opportunities and were unable to cash in on any of them.
“Kwamen (Tchapda) and TJ (Togarepi) are starting to creat a little bit of stuff,” said Reis. “Nolan Heck is playing out on the wing and has gotten a little bit better, and he’s gotten the ball on his foot a little bit more. He can be dangerous from 20 yards and in, but we’ve got to consistently in the other team’s end. On free kicks and long throw ins, we’ve got to do a little bit better job on, and getting the flick to the back post to see we can create a scramble in the box.”
Up next for QND (2-8-2) is a home gamea against Rock Island at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, followed by the Great River Classic in Bettendorf, Iowa from Thursday through Saturday.
“We haven’t played (Rock Island) in a while, but they’re pretty solid,” said Reis. “They beat Quincy High 2-0 the other night. So it’s another tough grind against a big school. So we’ll be alright and we’ll see how it goes.”
Blue Devils fall to Glenwood
The Quincy High School boys soccer team fell to Chatham Glenwood 3-0 on Saturday at Flinn Memorial Stadium.
Delcan Gorrie, Andrew Mehaffy and Cole Wodward scored the goals for Glenwood.
Up next for QHS (5-5-1) is a road game against Jacksonville (9-2-1) at 6 p.m. on Monday, followed by a home game against Western Big 6 Conference rival Moline (7-4) at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.