By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
Last weekend’s Saint Anthony’s Quadrangular at the Uihlein Soccer Park turned into more of a war of attrition for the East Troy boys soccer team.
Thankfully for the Trojans, they survived three physical battles – and now they’re ready to move forward.
East Troy won its opener last Friday night over Martin Luther before it fell in its next two matches to close out the weekend at 1-2 overall.
The Trojans took a 4-5 record and a 2-3-0 Rock Valley Conference mark into a home game Tuesday afternoon against Big Foot-Williams Bay. Results were unavailable by press time.
First-year East Troy coach Mike Bottum said he was glad to see his team get through the quadrangular in one piece.
“I will seriously re-examine the rationale of entering a midseason tournament next year,” he said. “If we had a larger, deeper roster, we might benefit. Given what we have, though, these events simply spread us too thin.”
East Troy opened play with a 3-2 win over Martin Luther Friday night. The Trojans led 2-1 at halftime behind two goals by Kai Bottum. Noah Scheer added the other in the second half to help the Trojans hang on for the win.
Brett Harper had an assist for East Troy, while goalie Kory Olshefski had eight saves.
“It was a very physical game,” Bottum said.
In Saturday’s first game, the Trojans fell 2-0 to a talented Fond du Lac squad. The Cardinals scored both goals in the first half.
“Fond du Lac was a very skilled team,” Bottum said. “(We) did an excellent job in the second half marking and preventing any true scoring opportunities.”
The Trojans closed out the weekend with a 6-1 loss to Franklin later in the day Saturday. The game was tied at 1-1 at halftime, as Harper scored an unassisted goal.
Bottum turned to his bench for most of the second half, as the previous two games had taken their toll on his squad.
“Many (starters) were sore or injured and beat up from the previous two games,” he said.
The Trojans did return from Milwaukee with one positive.
“Overall, for the weekend we developed our defensive play against stronger teams,” Bottum said. “That was valuable.”
Bottum lauded the play of Joe Stephan, Joe Sterle, Olshefski, Bryan Rose, Kai Bottum and Harper.
Following Tuesday’s Big Foot matchup, the Trojans were back in action Thursday night at Edgerton. Big Foot entered play this week at 2-2-1 in conference play, while Edgerton was 0-3.
