The Munising Baptist Bobcats had a rare non-conference game against Copper Country Christian on Friday, Sept. 29, defeating the road team 4-2.
“It went really well. I was a little unsure of what we were going to get because we haven’t seen them since before COVID,” said Hunter MacArthur, Munising Baptist Head Soccer Coach. “They played really hard and really well, but our team is really starting to click.”
The Bobcats were able to find two early goals from Dylan Swift. Both were unassisted goals that were shot from well outside the 18-yard box, catching Copper Country’s goalie Luke Groeschl out of position.
“Within the first five minutes we saw that he played out really far, like abnormally far, so I let the midfield and the strikers know that they had the green light to put it on net anytime they had the chance,” MacArthur said.
Swift scored a third goal with an assist from Will Norton to put Baptist up 3-0 halfway through the first half. It was Swift’s second hat trick of the season. Isaac Noble of Copper Country was able to get a late breakaway and find the back of the net shortly before halftime to make it 3-1 at the break.
The start of the second half saw similar offensive pushes centered on counter attacks. Munising Baptist had its only corner kick of the game in the 12th minute of the second half, but the ball was cleared by Groeschl. The clear went straight to Copper Country’s Nick Jackson for a quick break down the middle of the field. He capitalized with a long shot that went over the head of Bobcat goalie Ethan Swift to bring the game within a goal.
The Bobcats were able to put the contest away for good with about 11 minutes remaining. Dylan Swift once again was able to chase down a long pass into the corner right of the goal, with Groeschl and another Copper Country defender trying to crash down on the forward. Swift was able to send a crossing pass towards the box where fellow attacker Trek chipped it into the empty net for the 4-2 final.
Copper Country was able to get a number of offensive opportunities compared to the home side, registering 20 total shots with 12 corners. But only seven of those shots were on goal, with Swift saving five of those attacks.
For Copper Country Head Coach Jeremiah O’Connor, quantity was a part of the game plan.
“I wanted their main focus to be on passing and direct the ball into the goal instead of the higher shots, but sometimes you just rather have a shot instead of no shot. If you get two goals out of ten shots, that’s the main strategy we want to go for,” he said.
Copper Country primarily plays against travel teams and MHSAA junior varsity squads like Houghton and Marquette. They lost 4-1 at Big Bay on Saturday morning, but they don’t often play teams in the Northern Lights League.
MacArthur said the opportunity to play someone different heading into the final stretch of the regular season was a positive for the Bobcats.
“This was a pretty good test. This was a fast team. After next week, we have one game and then the tournament, so we want to be ready for that,” MacArthur said.
Editor’s Note: Rachael Gurski assisted in the interviewing for this article.
