Proctor Boys Win Season Opener

Wes Vork-NSO

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Aug 26

Wes Vork-NSO

PROCTOR – First year Proctor Head Boys Soccer Coach Jesse Smith didn’t have to wait long to notch his first head coaching victory.

His Rails beat CEC 2-0 in their home opener Thursday afternoon in Proctor.

Proctor jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 27:00 mark of the first half when Tom Rossiter scored with the assist going to Chris Carlson. Despite several quality chances by both teams, the 1-0 score held up until with 17.5 seconds remaining Carlson scored off a scrum in front of the Lumberjack net to give the Rails a 2-0 home win.

Smith, a 2001 Proctor grad has been a part of the boys soccer program for the past four years, most recently as an assistant under former head coach Glen Sorenson. Smith, who played football for the Rails, is quick to credit his predecessor for helping him prepare to coach the soccer team, commenting to NSO. “I learned a lot through Glen, he really helped me prepare for this day.”

Helping make Smith’s inaugural season a bit easier is the fact that Proctor fields a team loaded with 13 seniors, nine of which start for the Rails. “That’s definitely the great part of coming in this year. This is a bit of an unusual for us; we normally have 5-6 seniors, so this really helps.” Smith mentioned.

Having a veteran team helps the Rails stay fresh, especially in the second half. “Our motto this year is “Hard For 90,” Smith added. We can roll in guys for 10 minutes to keep everyone fresher; there isn’t a drop off when we go to our bench.

In a situation that is usually more of a mid-season problem, the Lumberjacks started the season with several players injured. Still, CEC wasn’t without their chances. The Lumberjacks missed a scoring opportunity when Proctor’s goalie came out to play a ball midway through the second half. The ball was jarred loose but the Jacks shot went just wide of an open net. Then with 14:44 left in the game they put a hard shot off the crossbar. “I thought we did a good job of creating scoring chances, now we have to work on finishing.”

Isiah Schramm picked up the shutout for the Rails with a 9 save effort. Jarad Weeks was equal to the task with 9 saves for CEC.

Proctor will try to make it 2-0 on the young season when they host Two Harbors at 1:00 on Monday. CEC will play the Academy of Holy Angels at 1:00 on Saturday at Hilltop Field in Cloquet.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com