Kingsford soccer mercies IM, moves to 10-0 | News, Sports, Jobs

Iron Mountain’s Seth Greenleaf (2) tries to push the ball past Kingsford’s Colin Micheau (1) during Monday’s contest at Mountaineer Stadium. (Terry Raiche photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN — In its first nine games of the season, the Kingsford varsity soccer team had outscored opponents 48-2.

The Flivvers, ranked No. 6 in Division 3 by the Michigan High School Soccer Coaches Association, didn’t let up on Monday as they invaded Mountaineer Stadium and beat Iron Mountain, 8-0.

Kingsford is now 10-0 on the season.

“Good team effort, again,” Flivvers assistant coach Chris Moore said. “I thought Iron Mountain played really hard. They have a limited number of guys. Every guy’s playing, they’re playing as hard as they can. We have an old, experienced group, so you just expect them to come out and execute.”

For Iron Mountain, a game like this against Kingsford wasn’t unexpected.

Kingsford’s Jett Buckley (11) moves the ball up the field against Iron Mountain on Monday at Mountaineer Stadium. Buckley finished the game with two goals as the Flivvers picked up an 8-0 win. (Sean Chase/Daily News photo)

“Unfortunately, it went kind of like we expected,” Mountaineers head coach Greg Kulas said. “Because Kingsford is a very strong, very quick, very talented team. We can match up with them for short periods of time, but we’re just not at their level. Having 12 guys, we just, you just can’t stay with them. Nobody else can either.”

Thirty seconds into the contest, senior Jaxon Buckley broke the scoreless tie after he tapped a shot past IM goalkeeper Anthony Pineda. Kingsford held a 1-0 advantage.

“I was a little disappointed we came up and gave up a goal in the first 30 seconds,” Kulas said. “But sometimes that happens. They caught us napping before we ever got in the game.”

Two minutes later, Jaxon Buckley sent a cross in front of the Mountaineers’ goal and directly to a waiting Jett Buckley. Jett Buckley used his head to send the ball into the back of the net and suddenly the lead was 2-0, less than three minutes into the game.

Kingsford began to settle into a rhythm and the pace slowed until the seven minute mark. After a few shots rebounded away from the Mountaineers’ net, Jaxon Buckley got his foot on the ball and buried it in the back of the net, pushing the lead to three.

At the 20 minute mark, Jaxon Buckley found Jett Buckley again for an easy goal. Then, with nine minutes to play until half, Gavyn Laydon got in on the scoring with a right-foot goal and the Flivvers led 5-0.

“We have some things we do well, and the problem is our opponents know that,” Moore said. “So what we’re trying to work on in training and we’re trying to work on in some of these games, is developing other ways to score.

“Jaxon’s points speak for themselves, but if he can sometimes be a facilitator, it’ll surprise the other teams. We’re looking for him and Jett to create scoring opportunities for others to make us more dangerous come playoff time.”

Jaxon Buckley and Will Murvich each added a goal in the waning moments of the first half, giving Kingsford a 7-0 advantage after 40 minutes.

“I think we got a lot of value out of the first 15 minutes of the second half because I got to talk to them,” Kulas added. “And we tried to do some passing, and we had some nice passing sequences, and that’s what we need to keep doing to compete with the rest of the U.P.”

The game ended 17 minutes into the second half after Iron Mountain scored an own goal, putting the Flivvers ahead 8-0.

With the U.P. tournament quickly approaching, the Mountaineers are focused on continuous improvement.

“The main thing is we have to keep working on getting better at the things we know we need to improve on,” Kulas said. “And it doesn’t matter what the score is, we still have to take advantage of that time and try to try to get better. Ultimately, that’s the goal to keep improving as the season goes on and hopefully be more competitive with teams than we were at the start of the season.”

Although Kingsford has looked dominant through ten games this season, Moore is excited to see how they handle themselves at the Kimberly Quad.

“We’ve got Kimberly and Appleton North this weekend,” Moore said. “That’s two massive tests for us. We are going to find out kind of what we’re made out of.”