Not even two minutes after Regina Catholic scored the first goal of the game, Solon fought back.

“I just saw Tucker [Spence], he put his arm up, and he was going out, and I was right there,” said senior right-wing Parker Morgan.

Morgan took the assist from his teammate and tied the game for Solon with a score of 1-1. With about 60 minutes left to play, it looked like the crowd was in for an exciting game. However, for Solon, it was all downhill from there.

The rest of the game was a scoring onslaught from Regina as they added five more goals, ending with a score of 6-1. Three of the Regals’ goals came in the last 20 minutes.

The new head coach for Solon, Noah Sigwarth, doesn’t place the blame on the players for the loss in their home opener.

“I’ll take ownership for the result,” Sigwarth said. “Definitely not the result we were hoping for.”

Sigwarth, who is replacing former head coach Eyasu Russell, said the team has begun a new program and they’re still learning as they go. Despite the result, Sigwarth said he saw potential from his players early.

“We competed really well in the first half and capitalized on some of our opportunities,”

Sigwarth said. “And then we lost some steam in the second half, and again that’s my full responsibility for not having the guys ready.”

Solon finished the first half down one point, but they wouldn’t be able to move the ball efficiently in the second. As a result, Regina dominated on Solon’s side of the field and took numerous shots on goal.

To prevent second-half collapses and to increase his players’ stamina, Sigwarth says he plans to continue hammering in the conditioning during and after practice.

Morgan agreed with his head coach that the team needs to do more conditioning. Morgan also emphasized the need for better communication throughout the game and more passes in the middle of the field.

After facing a formidable opponent in the regular season opener, Sigwarth said he was proud of his players’ resilience.

“I’m really excited to see how they choose to respond to something like this,” Sigwarth said. “At the end of the day, we haven’t done enough.”