Pentwater soccer ends regular season with close, physical loss to Orchard View

PENTWATER — Pentwater got itself ready for its coming district tournament matchup by playing a bigger Orchard View squad Monday, and while the Falcons lost 2-1, coach Ralph Achterhof was pleased with his team's effort level.

The contest was quite physical, especially later in the game as the Cardinals sold out to prevent Pentwater from having a chance to tie the score. They went as far as the Cardinal keeper colliding with the Falcons' Brayden Stein on a play Pentwater's sideline felt should've resulted in a penalty kick.

"I sometimes think my guys have to get used to it a little bit," Achterhof said. "I tell them to step it up and stand up. So long as you do it the right way, and you use your shoulder."

Pentwater was getting ready for a very stern test in the district, as the Falcons open play with No. 14-ranked Leland, the district's top seed, on the road.

"They're really good, from what I'm told," Achterhof said of Leland. "It's probably going to be a tough battle. Games like tonight and Montague (a Falcons' win earlier this season), games like that are really good for us. We have some other teams that we played that are just good back and forth games, and that's good for the kids. That's how they get better."

Orchard View had the better of play for most of the first half and early in the second and was rewarded with two goals. The Cardinals got a well-placed ball off a corner kick, making for an easy toe tap for the score, and put in another goal early in the second half off a throw-in. OV also hit the crossbar twice with shots, so the lead was close to being even bigger.

Pentwater did respond with 32:37 to go when Brody Austin took a nice pass from Aron Mascorro, quickly wheeled around and fired a good shot that found the net, making the score 2-1. Achterhof said the Falcons have been in Austin's ear about being more aggressive in shooting, and seeing him rewarded for doing so was satisfying.

"The goal Brody made tonight was a beautiful goal, stopping that ball, turning around and shooting," Achterhof said. "We've been telling him at practice that he has the tendency to stop the ball, then go left or go right, and usually it ends up with (no shot opportunity). When we go up to Leland, if you don't do that, you lose the ball. That's just how good they are."

Another bright spot for Pentwater, one it's had most of the season, was solid play from keeper Ben Wisenbaugh. Wisenbaugh took over in goal partway through the season because the Falcons were not seeing the desired results with Gavin Macher in net. Wisenbaugh volunteered for the position, reasoning that he had experience playing as a youth hockey goalie, and sometimes his play shows it. At one point Monday he was briefly shaken up after colliding with a Cardinal, but returned to the game a couple of minutes later.

"Some of the things he does are more hockey goalie things than soccer goalie things, but he has been outstanding for us," Achterhof said. "He doesn't really like it, because he wants to be a forward and make goals, so last week we played against Crossroads, and we put him in the front and he made a couple goals."

The loss put the Falcons' final regular season record at 6-6-1, a solid mark considering the team had to replace nine seniors from last season. This year the team was much younger - Austin and Stein are the only seniors, so the Falcons will have to replace their top two scorers - and Achterhof said the Falcons have exceeded his expectations.

"We had some good teams that we beat," Achterhof said. "We will see what happens Wednesday. I feel there are quite a few teams in that district that we could compete with or (beat), but Leland is going to be tough. We've got a game plan."