Proctor Boys Win Tight 2-1 Home Soccer Contest

Wes Vork-NSO

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Sept 20, 2012

Wes Vork-NSO

PROCTOR – Sometime in sports, winning and losing can be by the smallest of differences. Brett Pinney was able to score on a header off of a throw in for the Proctor Rails while the CEC Lumberjacks weren’t able to capitalize on two scoring chances late in the game and Proctor came away with a tight 2-1 win in boys soccer.

The Rails got on the board first when Pinney scored an unassisted tally at the 28:24 mark of the first half. Pinney’s goal would be the only scoring of the half and Proctor went into the break up 1-0.

Hard work paid off for Westin Michaud and the Lumberjacks when he was able to get a foot on a pass from Ben Vuicich to tie the game at one apiece. Michaud’s goal came at the 54:39 mark of the second period.

Just five minutes later, Proctor took the lead back for good when Pinney made a beautiful play and headered the ball into the top corner of the net off of a Jacob Kunow throw in for his second goal of the game.

“We needed a big win like this; most of our wins have been against teams where we scored three or four goals on them, but this is our best win by far so far.” Proctor Head Coach Jesse Smith told Northland Sports Online following the game. “Cloquet is a high quality team and they’ve had some good wins, so this is nice.”

Late in the second half, CEC had a couple of great chances; on one they were able to get a kick away but the ball sailed high over an open net. On the other, Proctor’s freshman goalkeeper Michael Petoletti just beat the Lumberjack attacker to a loose ball right in front of the net. “He did a great job, but I was afraid he was going to get kicked,” stated Coach Smith. “We are short goalies; our starting goaltender is out and our backup keeper is a freshman,”

The Rails goalie net has looked a lot like musical chairs as of late. Starting goaltender Jake Mercer has been out with an illness forcing the Proctor to go with freshman Petoletti in nets. During a recent game he got nicked in warm-ups and the Rails called on senior Ty Rackliffe for a turn between the pipes.

“Mercer has been battling Mono, and against East, our backup keeper gets hurt in warm-ups, that’s just the way it is. (Rackliffe) is a field player and not a goalie, we just put gloves on him and sent him out there” explained Coach Smith. “Michael has been doing a great job for us in the net, he’s just a freshman and he is going to be really good.”

For the Lumberjacks, who have been on a hot streak as of late, it was kind of the one that didn’t get closed out. “This game shows that this particular season, everyone in the section is so close; there is nobody who is written off by this time of the year, nor is there anyone who is a frontrunner and it is plays like that which decide games,” CEC Head Coach Archie Clark explained. “If you make those plays, you win a 3-2 game, if you don’t you lose a 2-1 game, give them credit, they made the play,”

For the game Petoletti made nine saves for the Rails while his counterpart Halen Danielson notched the same nine for CEC.

Proctor will be back in action on Tuesday when they host Hibbing/Chisholm while the Lumberjacks travel to Hermantown for a re-match with the Hawks in an 11:00am Saturday Matinee game.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com