Vikings win regional championship

The New Berlin West boys soccer team travels to Pewaukee at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday to meet the Pirates in the WIAA Division 2 Sectional Semifinal.

The Pirates (19-2) won the Woodland Conference and then beat the Vikings, 2-1, on Oct. 5 on the same field.

The Vikings (13-7-3) are 10-1-1 in their last 12 games going back to Sept. 10. They made it to the sectional by ripping through Whitewater and Delavan-Darien, 8-1, in two matches last week.

"Luckily for us, we get a chance to get a little revenge in a rematch with Pewaukee," West coach Ryan Otten said. "We felt that we played well enough to win the first match we had with them, but Pewaukee put away the goals when it mattered.

"Hopefully, we can find a way to break down their tough defense as they have only allowed five goals in 21 matches. I like our chances considering that the pressure will be on Pewaukee as they are the No. 1 seed in the sectional, and have home field advantage.

"That gives us the underdog mentality of we've got nothing to lose."

Whitewater

They won their first-round regional match on Oct. 11, beating Whitewater, 5-1, and then blanked Delavan-Darien, 3-0, on Oct. 13, both matches at West.

Reed Albinger had two goals and an assist to spark the Vikings, who led 4-1 at halftime, over Whitewater.

David Franke added a goal and an assist and other scores came from Matt Rink and Brock Shilling. Kevin Marx had two assists and Nate Henrichs added one.

The Vikings scored at 3:54 (Rink/Marx), 13:16 (Shilling/Marx), 25:02 (Albinger/Franke), 30:05 (Franke/Albinger) and 31:50 (Caleb Hintz) in the first half. Albinger (Henrichs) closed out the scoring at 79:41 with a last-minute goal.

"We knew coming into our first match we needed to take it one game at a time," Otten said. "Our approach is never overlook an opponent or your season will come to a quick end. We were focused and ready to play Whitewater, and it showed in the first 15 minutes."

Title match

In the 3-0 win over Delavan-Darien two days later, West used three goals by Shilling to win the regional championship.

"I feel our team was well prepared, and didn't want to have their season come to a finish quite yet," Otten said. "Again, we were fortunate to get goals early, and concentrate on finishing out the game with a clean sheet, no injuries, and some rest. I really like the way our team is finally starting to jell."

The Vikings were able to get on the scoreboard early against the Comets, scoring in the sixth minute.

Delavan-Darien pushed everyone forward on one of their own corner kicks, but West was able to clear the ball first time as Zach Nelson controlled the ball, played it to Shilling at midfield and it became a 1-in-1 opportunity in which he beat the goalkeeper for the goal.

"Not many teams see the speed that Brock has, and I think it caught them a little by surprise," Otten said.

The Vikings were able to capitalize on a loose ball in the Delavan-Darien box in the 10th minute, as Rink controlled the ball and found Shilling for an easy tap in goal with the six yard box.

Finally, in the 24th minute Greg Cameron found Shilling at midfield, who then replicated his first goal with a one-on-one effort against the goalkeeper.

"I give Brock credit," Otten said. He had to make about a 40-yard run with the ball at his feet. He was then able to beat the oncoming goalkeeper with a move and passed it into the open net."

- Tom "Sky" Skibosh