by Theodore Tollefson

The Hastings High School boys soccer team had their best week of the season so far, winning both of their games on the schedule this previous week.

The Raiders opened their week at home on Thursday, September 16, playing their second conference game of the season against South St. Paul High School. Going into the game the Packers had a 3-3-1 record on the season, but had lost both their previous conference games on their schedule between Mahtomedi and Two Rivers.

The Raiders were the first to get the scoring going early thanks to a goal from senior forward Colby Donnelly seven minutes into the game. Donnelly scored again for the Raiders at the 18 minute mark of the first half, making the game 2-0 thanks to an assist from senior midfielder and captain Nestor Rova-Hegener.

With eight minutes left on the clock in the first half, Donnelly landed a pass that found him wide open on the Packers side of the goal. Donnelly took full advantage of the opening and made his third goal of the game to make it 3-0 Raiders to the end of the first half.

Two minutes into the start of the second half of the game, the Packers scored their first goal off of senior goalkeeper Carter Homb. With a minute and half left in the game, Donnelly was set up for a side kick from the 20 yard line as his teammates lined up against the Packers’ goal. The kick found junior midfielder Brenner Caturia-Penie who bounced the ball off his head over to senior midfielder Steven Krey, who connected on a header into the goal to make the game a 4-1 victory for the Raiders over the Packers.

Raiders head coach Jamie Swanson spoke on the victory after the game, “We seem to always bring a really good game against South St. Paul, you know, when the confidence is high and you know your opponent like we do know South St. Paul. These guys are just one of our rivalry games and it doesn’t take a lot for the team to get up for this. So it was a special first half, and we took care of our business in the second,” said Swanson.

Swanson also spoke about the impressive game performance from Donelly, “It feels good. He’s been doing well in training and it feels good to get paid when you’re working as hard as he has most, if not all games,” said Swanson.

Saturday, September 18, the Raiders returned to Todd Field again for an afternoon game against the St. Paul Harding Knights. The Harding Knights had come into the game with a 1-5 record after recording a win against Mounds Park Academy.

Again, the Raiders were first to score in this game and accumulated two goals in the first half of the game before connecting on another three in the second half. The Knights were only able to walk away with one goal for the game, ending with a final score of 5-1 to the Raiders.

Swanson spoke on how at this point of the season, non conference games do not carry as much weight when the majority of the remainder of the schedule are against conference opponents.

“We’re not discounting any of the non conference games that we have remaining. We’re really focused on what we can do in the conference, the better you do within your conference, I think the more respect you get in this section, especially with the tough conference we have as far as the top third goes. So if we can if we can perform well against them. I’m completely fine with that, but we’re really trying to focus on you know, taking care of a conference,” said Swanson.

The Raiders Boys Soccer team will have played their next game by the time of publication, on Tuesday, September 21 against Simley High School at Todd Field. Following their game against Simley, the Raiders will play two more games during the week: Thursday, September 23 on the road against Hill Murray High School and Saturday, September 25 against Stillwater at home.

Photo by Theodore Tollefson

Brenner Caturia-Peine celebrates with his teammates after scoring a goal.