On Tuesday, March 22, amidst the cold, rain and wind the Millard West varsity boys soccer team traveled to Papillion to take on the Monarchs.

The Wildcats got the ball to start the game and quickly moved it down the field on the Monarchs defense. However, an early save for Papillion’s goalkeeper kept the Wildcats off the board. Following the save, the ball exchanged hands and each team was able to take it deep into opponent territory, however, they were able to stop one another before there were any solid shots on goal. At the 12 minute mark of the first half, senior Conner Schmidt found the net off of a free kick to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.

Following the goal, the Wildcats continued to apply more pressure on the Monarch defense. Papillion’s defense finally cracked as they committed another foul on the Wildcats and set up Millard West for another free kick. This time, junior Reegan Hawkins found the net and in the span of three minutes, the Wildcats had taken a 2-0 lead.

The next 10 minutes of game time saw each team exchange possession of the ball many times, and the teams went back and forth down the field. At the 17 minute mark, senior Collin Shulte made a pass between multiple Monarch defenders to senior Aden Dyson who netted the ball for the Wildcat’s third goal. The first half fireworks were not done for the Wildcats yet, however, as not even four minutes later freshman Roman Didomenico scored his first goal of his high school career to put the Wildcats up four.

“My goal to extend our lead was very good because it forced the other team to put their heads down thinking they had no chance because they were losing by a lot,” Didomenico said. “That goal was very important for me, it gave me much more confidence going into our next game.”

The final 13 minutes of the first half saw the Wildcats in control of the ball and keeping it on the Monarch side of the field and putting multiple shots on goal. 

The second half began with the ball in the hands of the Monarchs; however, it quickly switched back to the Wildcats. This would be the tale of the entire second half as neither team was able to put the ball in the net over the 40 minute period. Wildcat senior goalkeeper Cody Fuller pitched the shutout for the Cats as he did not allow a single goal throughout the game and made three saves on Monarch shots.

 “The wind was a big factor in this game,” Fuller said. “Since we couldn’t kick the ball long, because the wind would blow it right back, we focused on a lot of short passes. Our defense did a great job of keeping the ball outside of the goalie box.”

The game ended with a final score of 4-0 proving that Millard West was the dominant team throughout. The team will next travel to Gretna this Saturday to take on the Dragons in what should be a very good game.

“Since this was our third game together I think we are going to carry over our togetherness to the next game,” Didomencio said. “We had great passing and possession in the Papillon game so we could use that to our advantage against Gretna.”

Millard West will enter the Gretna game with an overall record of 2-1 and they hope to continue their strong start to the new season.