Blazers Take Control of Match Against Peshtigo

Five second-half goals helped propel NEW Lutheran/Providence Academy to a 6-0 win over Peshtigo on Thursday night.
The Blazers broke a 0-0 deadlock 18 minutes into the game courtesy of James Staudinger. That score would last for about 30 minutes until Staudinger scored his second.
“We played 40 minutes of very good soccer at the very least, and I thought we played probably another 10 or 15 on top of that,” Peshtigo coach Sam Wargula said. “A lot of good stuff coming from it, but our inexperience in the midfield shows. We just got out-played there a lot.”
In the final 25 minutes of the game the floodgates started to open.
Monty Gunger scored with 25 minutes remaining, and NEW scored three times in the final 11 minutes, including two goals by Elijah Meerstein.
Ultimately, the Blazers just kept putting pressure on the Peshtigo defense and eventually found their way through. Wargula was happy with how his freshman goalkeeper Ezra Proft played, despite the six goals.
“It’s a lot of pressure, and if you’re playing 80 minutes of a game like that, you’re going to get one or two to go in,” Wargula said. “Ezra is a shining star of this season and one of two or three kids that are wild surprises that have exceeded expectations beyond my wildest dreams.”