Dogies fight adversity

The Dogie Soccer team were up against it last week as they played three conference games in the space of five days. Head coach Sally Hoover still suffered from low numbers as her team prepared to face off against Torrington on May 5 in a makeup game, Buffalo on Friday on the road, and Rawlins on Saturday at home. 

The Dogies dropped all three contests, 1-7, 0-11 and 2-5, respectively. 

Adversity continued to pile up on the Dogies as the squad went down another player just 32 seconds into the match against the Torrington Trailblazers at Schoonmaker Field. An unfortunate collision between two Newcastle players resulted in one being taken from the field by ambulance just as the contest began. 

Though the team would learn by the end of the contest that their teammate was going to be okay, Hoover admitted that the boys were certainly off their game for the entirety of the game, and that Torrington was also not themselves throughout. 

“It was pretty scary for everyone when that happened,” Hoover said.
“I have to give it to Torrington, though. They were very respectful, they didn’t celebrate goals, they tried really hard to work for goals and not take advantage of us when we were in that situation.”

The Dogies were able to put together some runs, and James Brown got his first goal of the season off an assist by Gabe Hoover, which got the Dogies on the scoreboard, and keeper Damian Ankeney made nine saves.  

Still off their game from the upsetting situation on Tuesday, the Dogies traveled Friday to Buffalo for a rematch against the Bison. It was Buffalo’s senior night and, according to Hoover, they came ready to play the Newcastle team that held them to zero points in the first half the last time the two squads met. Instead they got Caden Esposito, who was dry-heaving all over the field, Caleb Hoover who couldn’t breathe and felt so poorly he could hardly run, and it was nearly 80 degrees, which exacerbated the sickness.

“We were playing with basically nine kids, so there was nothing we could do,” Hoover said. “Without Caleb heading up the middle of the back line to stop their attacks, and Caden helping in the middle, we were kind of hamstrung.”

To add to the roster problems, having only one sub didn’t help the Dogies’ situation. Newcastle did the best they could with what they had, however.

“By the time their coach realized what they were up against, he did back off and switch things up,” Hoover said. “But by that time, they had scored four or five goals so we were pretty beat down by the time he put his JV players in the game.”

As Rawlins came to town on Saturday, things were looking better for the Dogies. Esposito was feeling a little better and Hoover was much improved, however, the Dogies still had to overcome the beat-down they took from the Bison the night before.
“I was so happy to see the boys show up against Rawlins,” Hoover said. “We knew what we had to do to be competitive, and we just had to do it.”

With only three minutes off the clock in the first half, Esposito got his team on the board when he found the back of the net. Newcastle held the 1-0 lead for only a short time, however, before the Outlaws tied things up. 

Rawlins went into the half up 3-1, then the Dogies struck first, 10 minutes into the second half, when Esposito scored again to narrow the deficit to 2-3. 

“About halfway through the second half, I heard their coach tell his kids to run,” Hoover said. “He knew we only had one sub so he decided to wear us down, and it worked.”

The Outlaws used the fatigue they created in the Dogies to score two more to take the 5-2 win. 

“I was really proud to see how the boys bounced back between what happened on Tuesday and then getting beat like that against Buffalo,” Hoover said. “They gave Rawlins a really good game. If we’d had five more kids on the bench, the score would have looked a lot different.”

This week, the Dogies will finish up their season as they travel to Torrington for a rematch on Friday.

Newcastle v. Torrington 5/6/25 1-7

Caden Esposito: 0-2 shots on goal

Cole Erb: 0-1 shot on goal

Gabe Hoover: 1 assist

James Brown: 1-1 shot on goal

Damian Ankeney: 9 saves

Newcastle @ Buffalo 5/9/25 0-11

Caden Esposito: 0-1 shot on goal

Cole Erb: 0-1 shot on goal

Damian Ankeney: 14 saves

Newcastle v. Rawlins 5/10/25 2-5

Caden Esposito: 2-4 shots on goal

Cole Erb: 0-1 shot on goal

Gabe Hoover: 0-2 shots on goal

Carson Leonard: 0-1 shot on goal

Damian Ankeney: 13 saves