GRAYLING — Things started off a little rough for the Grayling boys soccer team in its Lake Michigan Conference match against Harbor Springs in Grayling Monday night.
But, once the Vikings cleared their heads and shaken their doldrums they had everything clicking and cruised to a convincing 7-1 victory over the Rams to break a two-match losing streak.
The Vikings had scored just one goal in its last two matches, a 4-1 loss to Traverse City Christian in non-conference action and a 4-0 shutout at the hands of the Elk Rapids Elks in the league.
It improved the Vikings record to 7-3-1 overall, and 6-3 in the LMC for third place behind league-leading Elk Rapids (9-2-4 overall, 4-0-1 league) and second place Boyne City (8-4-1, 7-2-1 LMC).
Eliot Boik gave the Vikings a 1-0 lead eight minutes into the contest, and coach Andy Moore thought that would settle the team down a little bit and it would start playing its game.
But, instead the Vikings continued to spin their wheels and the Rams came back to score the equalizer on a breakaway about four minutes later.
The Vikings played tight for some time after that, until a fortunate bounce that resulted in Andrew Walsh’s goal that tave them a 2-1 lead that they would not relinquish.
Grayling scored four goals in the last 11 1/2 minutes of the first half to build a 5-1 lead at the intermission.
“We seemed to straighten out from there, and kind of took control,” Moore said. “We played tied with them for quite a long time. Sometimes that happens. You get a lucky bounce, get a little momentum and things go your way.
“Harbor’s goalkeeper could reverse the field with his punts, and we had a hard time playing that in the beginning. I think that could have contributed to some of our issues. Our defense stepped it up, and we played pretty good in the second half.”
Boik finished the match with three goals and an assist. Walsh added two goals and an assist. Jacob Schade had a goal and an assist, Anthony Harrington scored a goal and Alec Gardiner contributed an assist.
Thanks to Grayling’s stout defensive play Vikings’ goalkeeper Logan Cobb wasn’t challenged very often. But on the few times the Rams threatened, Cobb came out and cleared the ball out of danger.
Moore lauded the defense of Mitch Harrington, Gardiner and Tucker Mertes who had to be on their toes because of the big leg of the Rams goalie which kept the Vikings down on their end a lot.
Grayling has a rematch with Boyne City on Thursday. The Ramblers defeated the Vikings, 2-1 in Grayling back on Sept. 1 when the season finally got started after the COVID-19 pandemic delay.
“We’ll make adjustments to our game that we felt we were lacking in the first game,” Moore said. “We played them, I think with just one sub the last time and now we have everyone back so we’re looking pretty good for that game, I think.”
Boik is the main weapon for the Vikings’ offense, having scored 28 goals already this season.
