The Manchester Dutch soccer team staved off a challenge by league rival Lenawee Christian last Thursday night. Photo courtesy Drew Daniels

Lenawee had already handed Manchester one of their two league losses this season, so the Dutchmen were looking for revenge. Manchester coach Travis Baker felt confident heading into the matchup. “We knew going into Lenawee Christian it would be a tough game, but after our previous match up I felt we also knew there was a belief we could beat them,” he said.

After trading chances in the first half, Manchester took a 1-0 lead into halftime on a great individual effort by Lenin Fierro.

In the second half Manchester scored two more, one by Calvin Daniels and one by Jake Rowader. Spirits were high with a 3-0 lead on their arch-rival, but there were still 25 minutes left to play.

Lenawee put more pressure on the Manchester defense, and put two goals on the board within five minutes to pull within one with 20 minutes still on the clock.

At that point Manchester hunkered down and held off the Lenawee attack. Defenders Carson Ridenauer, Reese Dresch, Owen Whitney and Henry Wehrly worked hard to break up attacks and to clear the ball. Brayden Hayes was outstanding in goal, keeping out everything the Cougars sent at him. The Dutch wound the clock down and walked off with the victory. Coach Baker was happy with his team’s effort. “Outside of a few spurts in each half we played really well and did a good job of taking our chances on set pieces and some counters,” he said.

The next game for the Dutchmen is at home tonight (Monday October 8) against Clinton; kickoff is at 5 pm.