Chris Caporale, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Shawano Community High School senior Braxten Surber tries to beat Seymour’s Dalton Lehrer to the ball during Shawano’s 3-0 loss at home Monday.
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Shawano Community High School freshman Michael Klement battles with Seymour defender Dalton Lehrer for a ball in the first half of Shawano’s 3-0 loss at home Monday.
Once Seymour forward Nicholas Yohr got going Monday night, around the 20th minute, the Shawano Hawks had difficulty slowing down the Thunder offense in a 3-0 defeat at home.
Rhett Driessen missed a one-on-one opportunity with Shawano goalkeeper Will Bergner early in the match, but Yohr got behind the defense nine minutes later.
Shawano defender Mike Teeter slid to help direct Yohr’s shot away from the goal, but clipped the forward’s leg in the box, giving away a penalty kick, which Yohr converted for the 1-0 lead.
“Once he gets going, he’s of the style that just tries to keep muscling his way through and carrying it and see what he can get, so that’s kind of how we started getting our chances there,” Seymour head coach Todd Messner said.
Yohr had another chance just two minutes later, but it wasn’t until the 44th minute that Seymour (2-2-1, 1-1-0 Bay) would double its lead. Driessen dribbled down the right side of the box before striking his shot, which got deflected, throwing off the timing of Bergner’s jump on his line as the ball floated over his head into the net.
It’s not like the Hawks (3-3-1, 1-1-0 Bay Conference) were without chances on their end either.
In the 37th minute, Seymour goalkeeper Michael Kuehne dropped the ball after a save, leaving it rolling in front of the net. No Hawks players were in the vicinity to take advantage of the opportunity.
Shawano head coach Bob Croschere made some changes to bring players forward in the second half to find a way to get on the board.
“We had opportunities early,” Croschere said. “We had opportunities late, but can’t score, can’t win.”
Jacob Moesch had an opportunity to score, but his shot flew less than a foot over the goal.
Jacob Dickmann then sent a deep free kick just over the goal with Kuehne off his line while jumping forward and misreading the ball.
Messner was happy that Kuehne and his defenders were able to hold on for the shutout.
“Now that we still held it and got a shutout, I think that should go in our favor quite a bit,” Messner said of building momentum for his team.
Bergner recorded 13 saves in goal for the Hawks.