News Photo by James Andersen Alpena’s Cam Young launches a shot at the net during the first half of a boys soccer district quarterfinal game on Thursday at Park Family Field at Wildcat Stadium. Young scored on the play giving Alpena a 2-0 lead. Alpena ultimately won 8-0.
ALPENA — The Alpena High boys’ soccer team got off to a phenomenal start to the district playoffs on Thursday, defeating Cadillac 8-0 by mercy-rule.
Alpena’s offensive was unstoppable throughout the game, putting constant pressure on Cadillac’s goalie all night.
“The seniors responded well to knowing that they have to do their job at home. That’s one of the reasons we finished third in the league, we took care of business at home,” Alpena coach Tim Storch said.
Jacob Beaubien netted a hat trick for Alpena (13-4-3), Austin Townsend had two goals and Cam Young, Owen Kaiser and Gabe Glawe each had single tallies.
Alpena advances to face Bay City Western in a district semifinal on Wednesday at home.
The Wildcats couldn’t have gotten off to a better start. Within the first minute, Beaubien scored his first goal of the night. Beaubien’s goal gave Alpena the early momentum and put it ahead 1-0.
Cadillac’s defense struggled to keep up with the pressure Alpena put on the night as it gave up another goal with 32:28 left in the first half. Young got credit for the goal, giving the Wildcats a 2-0 lead.
“When we got the second goal within 10 minutes, it was already 2-0. So it just kinda multiplied itself and you could see it took the wind out of their sails,” Storch said.
The offense did not stop for Alpena from there. With around 25 minutes left in the first half, Glawe got in on the action and extended the Wildcats’ lead even further. Glawe scored the goal off a costly mistake by Cadillac that turned into a penalty kick for Alpena.
Beaubien recorded his second goal of the first half with 14:14 left, increasing the lead to 4-0.
Less than a minute later, Alpena tacked on another goal. This time it was Townsend scoring his first goal of the game, giving Alpena a 5-0 advantage.
Having two goals just 30 minutes into the first half, Beaubien achieved the hat trick by scoring his third goal of the game. This goal was assisted by Myles Williams and came with 12:40 left in the first half, giving the Wildcats a 6-0 lead going into halftime.
“About three weeks ago I really challenged Beaubien to be the player I knew he could be,” Storch said. “He’s always been a very very good player, other coaches see what he can do… I told him he needed to be the player and the finisher he could be and he’s really developed into that.”
After halftime, Storch made several adjustments, giving many different players the opportunity to play in a district game.
Although many other players got the opportunity to play, Townsend recorded his second goal of the game, which was assisted by Beaubien. This gave Alpena a 7-0 lead, meaning they only needed one more goal to complete the mercy rule.
The final goal of the game came with 14:57 left in the second half by Kaiser.
Kaiser’s goal officially moved Alpena to the next round of the playoffs.
“The beauty about this team is that we get goals from Jacob Beaubien, Gabe Glawe, Austin Townsend, Jack Cook, and we’ve got a lot of other guys. We’re a team that’s difficult to defend because you don’t know who to focus on,” Storch said.
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