By Bruce Karnick

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An 0-2 record is never fun, and coaches never want to start the season with a loss, let alone two, but Raider Boys Head Coach Jamie Swanson is not worried. The first matchup was against a great Richfield team. Hastings dropped that contest 5-0.

“We expected the guys to get 80 minutes of gritty effort, and I saw that, I didn’t see any give up. I saw some disappointment, but there’s this difference between disappointment and giving up. So, we didn’t see any of that so I’m completely fine. You know, it was the first game of the year so, you know, if you see a little bit of that [give up] maybe, maybe we got more problems than I thought. But there wasn’t a problem with effort tonight at all,” Swanson said after the home opener.

Often, it comes down to will or skill. Do the players have the will and the skill to win the match? If they have the will but not the skill, the skill can be taught, but how do you teach the desire to do what needs to be done? Clearly, Swanson has no worries about his teams will. Prior to the official start of the interview, it was clear he was not worried about the skill of the players either, he knows he and his staff can help the boys get better in the skill department.

The Raiders had a slow start last season too dropping five before they poured it on to finish 4-6-1 in a goofy season due to COVID. This year, Swanson hopes to not have that losing streak.

“We ran into a very good program. We used to have our way with them. But, like I told the guys in our little meeting. It’s a sine wave, and they’re up they’ve been up, they were up last year, they were section final team. We knew they were going to be good. It’s, it’s unfortunate that we had to lose five – nil,” explained Swanson.

The first half of the game offered a number of great scoring chances, they just could not connect. “At halftime we talked about our final ball, it just wasn’t good enough, our crosses were not good enough. Our through balls weren’t the right ball, they were finding defenders and weren’t often over the top. We just didn’t find the right ones at the right time,” added Swanson.

Senior Steven Kray had a chance to break up the shutout when he crushed a shot off the crossbar with less than 20 seconds left on the game clock. Swanson expects the boys to become more aggressive as they begin to knock the rust off and trust their connection with their teammates.

Saturday, they travelled to Owatonna and fell 4-2, but as Coach Swanson said after the Richfield game, “we’re gonna throw some balls back there.”

They did get two through, but it was not enough to earn the first win of the season.

The Raider ladies first game followed a similar fate to that of the boys. The girls also struggled to connect on their final passes near the net to give the shooters a chance to bury one. They did a great job moving the ball around the field to open players, it was that final connection that just didn’t happen against a very tough Bloomington Jefferson squad.

Their defense held strong too, only allowing a few shots on goal for the first half. Unfortunately for rookie varsity keeper Ava Doffing, most of the shots that made it past the defense, also made it past her. Thankfully for Doffing, the nerves of the first varsity game don’t last all season and Head Coach Scott Meier is a great coach for goalies. Doffing will settle in nicely and make huge strides for the Raiders very quickly under Meier. Bloomington Jefferson defeated the Raiders 4-1 after a lightning delay that forced fans out of McNamara Stadium for around 45 minutes.

Saturday, August 28, Hastings travelled to Cottage Grove to take on Park. A game that was nearly a carbon copy of the first. Cottage Grove took the 2-1 lead in the first half and never looked back, adding two in the second half to end the game 4-1 and send Hastings back home at 0-2 to host Rochester Century on Tuesday night.

Up next for the girls, is the long Duluth road trip. They will play in Duluth Thursday at 5:00 p.m., spend the night then play again Friday after noon at 2:00 p.m. before coming home to host Tartan after the boys game on Friday night, September 10.

Hastings boys travel to Johnny Cake Ridge field in Apple Valley on Thursday, September 2, to take on the Eagles at 5:00 p.m. They host Park at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 4 and will host Tartan for a 5:00 p.m. tilt on Friday, September 10.

The look on Jaylen Hanson’s face says it all, more about the rain than the play on the field. Shortly after this picture was taken, the game was suspended due to lightning in the area. Photo by Bruce Karnick

Senior Steven Kray could only laugh at how close his shot was to breaking up the shutout with a few seconds left to go in the 5-0 loss to Richfield at Todd Field. Photo by Bruce Karnick