By Dan Truttschel
Sports Correspondent
A tough 2018 season for the Big Foot-Williams Bay boys soccer team came to an end last week in the Division 3 regional.
And now the Chiefs hope to use the overall experience moving forward.
Big Foot, seeded 14th, dropped a 5-0 decision to third-seeded New Berlin West in the regional semifinal last Thursday. New Berlin earned a trip to this week’s sectional tournament with a 2-1 victory two nights later over sixth-seeded Delavan-Darien.
The Chiefs finished the year at 3-15-2 overall.
“I thought we played OK,” Big Foot coach Keith Blakeman said. “They were the third seed, had an argument for two or one and were the number one team in Division 3 in the coaches poll that week. They are a quality team.”
New Berlin scored three times in the first half and added two more in the second half to put the game out of reach.
Blakeman was encouraged to see his team execute parts of the game plan in an attempt to keep things close.
“We worked hard to limit the contributions of one of their key midfielders and succeeded there,” he said. “We also, in general, played decent defense despite the score.”
While the Chiefs finished with just three wins, and improvement was tough to come by, Blakeman said he felt that his team made strides offensively, especially as the season moved along.
There were some tough moments for the team’s younger players, but he did see growth.
“I am certain that we saw real improvement from many players as they gained experience, mostly tough and negative, at this level,” he said. “I’m proud of our freshmen and sophomore players for the strides they have made.”
Last week’s regional loss ended the Big Foot playing careers of seniors Jalin Deleon, Eli Hibl, Gunnar Smith, David Perez and Alexis Munoz.
Deleon and Hibl served as the team’s co-captains.
“All of our five seniors were great teammates this season when they could have been much more negative,” Blakeman said. “They have all been great program participants and emerged as great leaders this season. I have to credit our limited successes to them for keeping us together and working toward the same goal.”
Results of All-Rock Valley Conference voting and a statistical wrap up of the season will appear in a future edition.
