Wolves take third place in Pinnacle Cup Soccer Tournament

The Green River Wolves Boys Soccer team traveled to compete in the Pinnacle Cup Soccer Tournament in Worland last weekend. The Wolves started the season off strong, winning two of the three games they played and snagging a third-place finish in the tournament.

The Wolves' first game was against the Douglas Bearcats on Friday. It was a victorious day on the field for the Wolves as they earned their first win, beating the Bearcats 3-0.

Leading the team were Braxton Doak, Aidan Falcon and Gavin Mares with one goal each, along with Doak and Guy Grace with one assist each and Eddie Zarate with two saves.

Head Coach Josh Webb said they started the first half of the game slow, but during the second half they slowed the tempo of the game, allowing them to possess the ball more and use the width of the field. Once they started doing that, it opened up the middle for them and they scored three goals and won the game.

On Saturday, the Wolves played against the Torrington Trailblazers. During the first half of the game, the score was held at 0-0. Both teams were playing hard on the field, and at the end of the second half the score was tied 1-1. After the shootout, Torrington took the win 2-1.

Leading the team was Braxton Doak with one goal, along with two shots from Stone Rubeck, Irie Kuball and Gavin Mares and one shot from Izyk Arellano.

"That was a really good game," explained Coach Webb. "We were up on them by one the whole second half of the game until the last 30 seconds of the game. We had a foul in the box and gave them a penalty kick, which tied the game."

For the next game on Saturday, Green River took on the Buffalo Bison. Green River had a lot of chances to score but didn't get the ball in the net. The Wolves payed great defense and kept Buffalo from scoring any goals. Eventually, Braxton Doak made the one goal they needed to win the game. The Wolves won over Buffalo with a final score of 1-0.

Coach Webb feels the boys did very well for their first time on the field this season. He said it was a good little tournament to play in against the eastern teams in the state, and now they know what they need to work on before they encounter Pinedale. He explained that he expected them to be a little more nervous on the field and have more mistakes, but they did very well. They are going to be working on using the winds in the midfield and giving the 9-7-11 (striker, right and left wing players) a ball that they can control when they break the back line. Then they will only have to take one touch on to play forward instead of three or four. Trying to give them more balls on the ground to their feet will also improve their chances to score and win more games.

Green River will play a game against the Pinedale Wranglers today at 5 p.m. in Green River.