Natrona County boys’ soccer team sees improvement despite results | Boys Soccer

The NC players jumped in celebration before rushing over to congratulate Nopens.

Less than 24 hours after suffering an 8-1 loss to rival Kelly Walsh in the annual Casper Cup, the Mustangs showed they hadn’t lost their excitement for the game.

“The results haven’t been there,” NC head coach Chris Stier said, “but these kids come to practice every day working to get better. They’re putting in the work and they’re seeing those concepts. Sometimes it’s tough, but we’re still going to do it the right way.”

A 5-3 loss at Evanston the following day dropped the Mustangs to the bottom of the Class 4A West Conference standings with a 1-7-0 record (1-9-0 overall). Just four years removed from winning the 4A state championship, Natrona County is trying to regain its winning form. But with just five upperclassmen on the roster and a starting lineup comprised of one senior, one junior, eight sophomores and a freshman the Mustangs have taken their lumps this season.

The Mustangs have shown signs of improvement in recent games, however. Against top-ranked Kelly Walsh last week, they took advantage of a mistake by the Trojans to tie the score at 1-all in the 10th minute on a goal by Nopens off an assist from sophomore Zach Barrett. And the three goals they scored in the loss to Evanston were a season high.

“They know that they’re a young team and what we have seen from the beginning of the season to where we are now there is definitely a build-up and we’re getting better,” Stiers said. “For a lot of these guys it’s their first varsity minutes. They’re getting thrown a lot of new ideas and concepts that they didn’t know before.

“The tactical part of the game is definitely getting better,” he added. “We’re trying to find the width a little bit better on the field. Our willingness to take shots earlier needs to get better, but we’re working on that. We need to play faster and get two-touch soccer, that’s how soccer needs to be played.”

Nopens leads the team with three goals, while senior Carlos Soto and sophomore Jael Reyes have two apiece and Barrett has one. Obviously, the Mustangs expect there to be more in the final weeks of the regular season.

“We’re getting there,” Barrett said, “it’s just the last little piece that we need to put together.”

Added sophomore midfielder Paxton Stoneking: “Our chemistry is getting better every week. I think we have good connections, it’s just that we’ll get going and then we have a bad touch or a bad pass and we need to recover.”

Unfortunately, those bad touches often lead to turnovers in the Mustangs’ defensive third of the field and result in one-on-one or two-on-one opportunities for their opponents. Natrona County has allowed 48 goals on the season; only Cheyenne South (59) has allowed more.

Sophomore goalkeeper Zach Hawley has been between the pipes for most of them, but he also leads 4A with 83 saves. In last week’s loss to Kelly Walsh he had 14 saves, including a handful from close range.

“Zach’s facing a lot of shots, but he’s making some big saves,” Stier said. “He gets frustrated, but the positive is he’s facing a lot of shots and getting a lot of touches on the ball and he’s improving every week.”

Stier firmly believes the best is yet to come for his young team. Even if the results don’t show up on the scoreboard he knows the Mustangs are only going to get better.

“It’s going to be that continual growth and hopefully we peak when we need to peak at regionals,” he said. “We’re young and always looking for improvement. Hopefully we can build something and it will filter into next year.”