For the Antigo Times

The Antigo boys varsity soccer team, coming off a long weekend of tournament play and a late away match, faced Mosinee at home on Tuesday night, where they lost 10-0.

As was the case on Tuesday night, Antigo was shorthanded, missing six players due to injur or other commitments. That led to a bare bones roster for both concurrent JV and varsity matches, with JV only playing nine and varsity only playing 11.

Mosinee was Antigo’s first Great Northern Conference matchup and had begun their season 4-0, while Antigo stands at 0-4. Mosinee scored early and often in the first half, leading to a 7-0 deficit at half time. Despite tiredness, the Robins still managed to hold for most of the second half, waiting until the 80th minute to allow the last goal and making a 0-10 deficit to end the match early.

Antigo also occasionally saw offensive glimmers, with junior Zach Reineke, and sophomore Noah Samolinski collecting a number of shots, unfortunately none of which translated into goals.

Varsity coach Ben Wilhelm summarized by saying, “I could tell going into this match that our guys were just exhausted. We’d fought an excellent match the night prior that we were proud of. But starting the match, knowing we had no subs or relief was difficult. Still I told our players that I was very proud of them because not one of them hung their heads or gave up.”

The Robins now have a few days off to rest and recover, as school starts on Thursday, and their next match is Friday at home versus the Northland Pines Eagles.