Lack of experience hurts Sweet Home
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Sweet Home's struggles cannot be pinned to one area, said Panthers boys soccer coach Chris Hershey.

"It's been a complete mental collapse," said Hershey. "Most of the guys on the team now, unlike the teams I've had the last two years, don't have much experience winning games. They haven't won any games as JV players the last two years so they don't know how to win."

"The other end is I've yet to play a game with a (full) roster," he added. "I've had at most 15 kids available in any one game (17 on roster). That hurts. I only have four guys I can go to on the bench to give a guy some rest."

Those two elements, combined with an inability to finish games, have resulted in the Panthers starting the season 0-6 and searching for an identity.

"We've been in positions to win three out of six games and had a lead late in the game just to collapse," said Hershey.

Hershey said his team was up 1-0 60 minutes in against West Seneca West only to lose, 4-1. Sweet Home also led West Seneca East, 2-1, at halftime only to fall 7-4 and trailed Hamburg, 1-0, on Sept. 20 at halftime before dropping a 6-1 decision.

"Most of the goals come in the second half," said Hershey.

"We've not given up more than two goals in the first half of any game."

Sweet Home's other games saw defeats to Williamsville East, 5-2, on Sept. 12 and 4-1 losses to Kenmore West and Lew-Port in the ECIC-NFLChallenge.

Senior Eric Schnirel leads Sweet Home with four goals. Sophomore Nick Cavalleri, a defender changed to forward, is second with two goals.

"He did not play in the program last two years but decided to come back and has been a pleasant surprise for us," said Hershey of Cavalleri. "He's played mostly in the back but I moved him up front because he's so fast."

Sweet Home hosted Iroquois Tuesday but results were unavailable before The Bee went to press. They do not play until Oct. 4 at home against West Seneca West.

"We just need to learn how to affect the momentum in a game and keep it in our favor," said Hershey. "That's about playing a little bit smarter at times rather than always pressing trying to get the third or fourth goal. We need to learn how to sit on a 1-0, 2-1 lead and maintain it."

"It comes down to experience," he continued. "Most of my kids lack big game experience and that's really what this amounts to in my opinion. Physically, we're in decent shape, we're fit, that's not an issue. It's experience so our practices have been replicating these situations in games that we have to deal with."

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com