Bluffton’s Caleb Davis dribbles against Lincolnview’s Cody Ricker during Monday’s match at Steinmetz Soccer Field in Bluffton.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
BLUFFTON — Bluffton’s 5-0 victory on Monday night at Steinmetz Field over Lincolnview extended its Northwest Conference winning streak to 43 games and for the 10th consecutive time, it means the Pirates are the league’s champion.
Since Bluffton became an official soccer member of the NWC in 2015, it has never lost or tied a match against a conference member with a record of 43-0-0.
“The tough thing about coming into these games is that you have a target on your back when you’ve won this many games in a row,” said Bluffton coach Dan Lee. “Coming out, our mindset is that we know everybody is coming to get us and we have to show up and play.”
Senior captain Caleb Davis said, “It’s a great feeling. There’s a lot of pressure to come out and perform but we have guys that put in a lot of work and it’s paying off. We basically play soccer from January to December and then it repeats, for moments like this.”
Bluffton (8-6-0, 4-0-0 NWC) struggled to find the back of the net in the first half, but not due to lack of effort. The Pirates fired eleven shots on goal but Lincolnview’s reigning NWC first-team keeper Mason Waltmire was near perfect blocking all but one attempt.
A Lancer handball just outside the goal set up Bluffton’s Jackson Brauen for a penalty kick against Waltmire and Brauen capitalized for the lone first-half tally.
“I was a little nervous going into the kick, but I’ve had a lot of chances this year and I just followed my normal process and when I stepped up, I just took care of business,” Brauen said.
“Jackson is seven of seven or six of six, regardless he’s perfect on penalty kicks this year. The cool thing in that moment for me was that Jackson and Mason have played together and are good friends, so for a second there it was fun to see the friends compete against each other,” said Lee
Lincolnview (3-8-1, 1-2-1 NWC) entered the break with high energy and confidence following a strong defensive half. The Lancers’ lone shot on goal in the first half skimmed inches in front of Pirate keeper Emmitt Kidd before he cleared the ball.
A quick striking effort by the Pirates pushed the game out of reach early into the final 40 minutes.
Levi Antrim and Gavin Amsturz combined for a pair of goals 57 seconds apart, and just five minutes into the second half, Bluffton led 3-0.
Lee said, “They (Lincolnview) played with one sub tonight and we talked about that at halftime. We knew their legs would get heavy and we wanted to make sure we went out and took care of business. When you have the leadership that’s able to do that and put them away that fast, it’s great to have.”
Antrim darted a kick past Waltmire eight minutes later to stretch Bluffton’s advantage before Calvin Derstine put the final nail in the coffin.
“During the first half, I had a couple of chances that I didn’t capitalize on, so in the second half I knew what I needed to look for,” Levi Antrim said. “I saw some open opportunities and the defense split up which allowed me to get shots and I took them.”
Box score
Bluffton’ 1, 4 – 5
Lincolnview’ 0,0 – 0
Scoring Summary
10:17/1st – Jackson Brauen PK
35:58/2nd – Levi Antrim
35:01/2nd – Gavin Amstutz
27/09/2nd – Levi Antrim
14:04/2nd – Calvin Derstine
Nate Stidham wrote this story for LimaScores.com
