By Dan Truttschel
Sports correspondent
The 2017 campaign has gotten off to a bit of a slow start for the Big Foot-Williams Bay boys soccer team.
But for the Chiefs, a late goal Monday night that forced a tie with Faith Christian could be the springboard to better things down the road.
Big Foot was in danger of losing its fourth straight contest out of the chute but an unassisted goal by Jack Grunow with two minutes left forced a 2-2 nonconference tie with the Eagles.
The Chiefs are 0-3-1 overall.
Faith Christian took the early lead with a goal at the three-minute mark before Big Foot knotted things at 1-1 apiece on a goal by Heath Dillenbeck off an assist by Freddie Mannelli 12 minutes later.
The Eagles regained the lead at the 62-minute mark, and that’s how things stayed until Grunow’s late game-tying score.
Big Foot goalie Alexis Munoz finished the night with three saves.
Prior to Monday’s match, the Chiefs dropped a pair of 3-1 decisions to Janesville Craig and Stoughton at a triangular at Janesville Craig.
Big Foot’s Emmanuel Carreno scored the Chiefs’ only goal against Craig. Munoz collected seven saves.
The Chiefs jumped out to a 1-0 lead against Stoughton, as Nate Peterson scored at the 29-minute mark off an assists by Eli Hibl.
But Stoughton responded with goals at the 42-, 53- and 80-minute marks to pull away. Munoz had 13 saves for Big Foot.
The Chiefs opened their season Aug. 24 with a 5-0 nonconference loss at Delavan-Darien, which entered the year ranked No. 1 in Division 3.
Delavan scored two goals in the first half and added three more in the second. Big Foot had just three shots on goal. Munoz had 12 saves for the Chiefs.
Big Foot was back in action Saturday with its own invitational. Joining the Chiefs were Badger, Belleville, Janesville Craig, Portage, Richland Center, Kenosha St. Joseph’s and Westosha Central. See the Sept. 8 issue for results.
