Is there a doctor in the house?

Posted 5/1/12

A freakish 10-minute stretch of play in the first half saw three Panther players go down with injury. Leading 1-0, Panther head coach Travis Rapp watched as Cooper Wise, Jakob Himmelstrup and Keithen Schwahn all went down just past the midway point …

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Is there a doctor in the house?

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Injuries abound as Panthers salvage split

The fourth-ranked Panther boys’ soccer team split a pair of games over the weekend, falling 5-2 at Lander on Friday before recovering with a 1-0 victory in Pinedale on Saturday. The impact of the games might extend far beyond the win-loss column or this week’s rankings update though.

A freakish 10-minute stretch of play in the first half saw three Panther players go down with injury. Leading 1-0, Panther head coach Travis Rapp watched as Cooper Wise, Jakob Himmelstrup and Keithen Schwahn all went down just past the midway point of the first half.

“Cooper went down with an ankle injury,” Rapp said. “Jakob got kicked in the knee and then Keithen went down with a kick to the ankle. We lost our organization in that time.”

As a result, the first half ended with the Panthers’ goal under a constant barrage of pressure. Lander scored off a corner kick to tie the game and were denied several other opportunities via athletic saves from freshman goalkeeper Heston Swenson.

“If he doens’t make several incredible saves, then we are down by five or six goals at halftime instead of going in tied 1-1,” Rapp said.

All three injured Panthers returned to play. According to Rapp, none was able to approach 100 percent ability, however. Lander, meanwhile, kept the pressure on relentlessly.

“The second half, we put in a different formation that we had been working on in case we saw Jackson at state, and it depends on more individual marking and less help defense,” Rapp explained. “Lander was too quick up front for us to really accomplish what we were tryng to do.

“We definitely could have marked better in our defensive third, especially in the box. Their last two goals came from unparked players inside our 6-yard box.”

The barrage of shots from Lander came in stark contrast to the opening minutes of the game. Emilio Raya stole the ball from Lander just seconds after the opening whistle, dribbled in on goal and dropped a pass to Kaden Cherian, whose low driving shot was barely denied by the Tigers’ keeper.

Powell maintained its early pressure and Cherian returned to the center of the action roughly five minutes later. He sent a ball in from the right flank and found Cooper Wise up front with an assist after Wise was able to beat the keeper with another low shot on net for an early 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately, the Panthers would not score again until the closing minute of the game, when Ethan Landers stepped in front of a clearance attempt by the Tigers and scored an unassisted goal just before the final whistle. In the meanwhile, Lander unleashed 20 shots at Swenson in the Panthers’ goal.

“That’s asking a lot of your keeper,” Rapp said of the barrage. “He’d only had 61 shots on him all season before that game.”

The Panthers got back into the win column on Saturday, but nothing came easy.

“The Pinedale coach has done an excellent job in bringing that program up to speed,” Rapp said. “I knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.”

Wise sat out the game, still suffering from the effects of Friday’s severe ankle sprain. The Panthers were also without key reserves at the forward and midfield positions, one the result of disciplinary action, the other due to an injury suffered in JV play.

“We came out dominating the game and outshot them 15-0 in the first half, but it was one of those days where their keeper barely had to move because we shot each one directly at him,” Rapp said. “The longer the game stayed close, the more confident they became.”

The Wranglers were able to put some shots on Swenson in the second half, but the Panthers’ keeper proved up to the test. Finally, with 15 minutes remaining in the game, Dewey Schwahn corralled the ball in the Panthers’ defensive zone, dribbled past a pair of Pinedale defenders and crossed the ball to the back post where Cody Wichman was able to control it with his head and send it back across the goal and into net.

Rapp called the play “one of the better goals we’ve scored this season.”

That play turned out to be the game-winner for the Panthers as the final score ended 1-0.

While the scoring was over, the Panthers’ mishaps for the weekend were not. Powell’s Hunter Werbelow became the last of the injuries as he went airborn for a header with 10 minutes remaining in the game, but instead clashed heads with a Pinedale defender, resulting in a gash to his scalp.

“It looked a lot worse than it actually was,” Rapp said. “He was forced to get a staple to close the cut though.”

The good news for Rapp and the Panthers is that most of the injured players are projected to be back this weekend at full speed for the final regular season games at Star Valley and Jackson. One notable exception to that might be Wise.

“I imagine he will be out until our play-in game against Rawlins on May 11,” Rapp said Monday morning. “I haven’t talked to him since Saturday, but his ankle sprain was pretty bad. The rest of the varsity guys should be ready to go.”

 

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