Timm Snider trophy comes home

By 
MITCH MAERSCH
Ozaukee Press staff

What looked to be an early blowout turned into a nail-biter and grew up to be a solid victory in the Port Washington-Grafton high schools boys’ soccer rivalry last Thursday.

The Pirates survived the roller coaster ride, 6-3, and won back the traveling trophy in the 20th annual Timm Snider Memorial Game at the Jack and Shirli Flack Field at Thomas Jefferson Middle School.

The Pirates scored right at the start of the game on an impeccably placed corner kick and built a 4-1 lead by halftime.

But the Black Hawks struck back in the second half, cutting the lead to 4-3 in the 56th minute.

Port then settled down and put in two more goals to seal the win.

Five players scored for the Pirates, led by sophomore midfielder Porter Bostwick, who put his first two of the season in the net. Motivation, he said, came easy.

“I think it was the fact that we lost the trophy last year. We beat them in regionals; we knew we were the better team. We had to take it to ‘em,” he said.

First-year coach Phillip Nawrocki liked his balanced offense.

“I’m really happy the goals were spread around today,” he said.

Soon after the game started, Port senior midfielder Mavrick Roller scored on a corner kick that deflected off of the Black Hawks’ goalkeeper.

“I told them to go out there and make the first attack and it worked out really well,” Nawrocki said.

“That corner kick — unfortunate for the goalie — was right where it should be.”

Bostwick scored in the 16th minute on a long shot from the right side to the left corner, just past the leaping goalkeeper’s hands for a 2-0 lead. He added another on a penalty kick after a handball call in the 21st minute.

In the 24th minute, Port senior midfielder Dagan Daniels scored on a low ball that skidded along the ground from the left side. Bostwick assisted, and the Pirates had a 4-0 lead.

The Hawks, however, weren’t going to go down that easily.

In the 28th minute, Grafton junior defender Kolton Micoliczyk fired a long ball on a free kick that got the Hawks on the board.

In the 54th minute, Grafton senior midfielder Bryce Jobe fired a 25-yard shot past a diving Jack Schanen to the right side of the net.

Less than three minutes later, Grafton senior midfielder Evan Jobe blasted a long ball that barely snuck over Schanen’s outstretched fingers and under the crossbar on an assist from Bryce, and the Hawks were within one.

That would have tied the score, but Jack Schanen went to the ground to make a save on a penalty kick in the 51st minute.

“We battled real hard in the second half. They showed they wanted to win the game,” Grafton’s first-year coach Greg Springman said.

“It’s just tough when you dig yourselves a 4-nothing hole. It’s just too much to come back from.”

The Pirates had gotten a little out of sorts, they said.

“We started the second half very slow. I think unfortunately we were a little overconfident there,” Nawrocki said.

“When they got that third goal, I think that was the dagger that made the boys wake up. At that moment it changed. They started working toward our goal more often.”

They got momentum back in the 60th minute. Port junior forward Masud Zulfakar put in a rebound after the ball hit the cross bar, on assists from Mavrick and Carson Roller.

In the 82nd minute, Port junior forward Evan Huber found the left side of the net past a diving keeper on an assist by Carson Roller for the sixth goal.

Zulfakar and Huber said the team had to adjust mentally after the Hawks started scoring.

“Everybody saw we were scoring and then everybody else wanted to score, and then we chilled out and then we came together in the end and started playing like a team,” Zulfakar said.

“They started piling ‘em in, then we got our composure together,” Huber said.

Springman credited the Jobes for bringing the team back with some nice goals.

“In the second half, we played well and played even with them. If we played that way the whole game I think it’s a much different game for us,” he said.

The Hawks would have scored several more goals but Schanen thwarted chance after chance as both teams blasted long balls at each other’s goals.

“Jack’s phenomenal. He’s really the heart and soul of this team. He’s always in there, fighting, fighting, fighting. I literally think that kid would play with a broken leg. He’s so tough,” Nawrocki said.

While Port was at full strength, the Hawks were missing two players in quarantine due to Covid-19.

“We do what we can with it,” Springman said. “It’s just good that the kids are out here and able to play again.”

Players and coaches are required to wear masks on the sideline. Teams said they have adjusted to the WIAA rule.

Port is 2-2 in the North Shore Conference. The Pirates lost at Nicolet, 7-0, on Sept. 15, beat West Bend West, 4-2, on Sept. 17 and lost at Cedarburg, 6-0, on Sept. 22.

They were to play at Homestead (3-0-1) on Wednesday and host West Bend East (0-3) on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

Grafton is 0-3-1. The Hawks lost to Homestead, 5-0, on Sept. 15, lost, 7-0, at Whitefish Bay on Sept. 17 and tied Hartford, 2-2 on Sept. 22.

They host Slinger (0-2) on Thursday, Kohler on Monday, Oct. 5 and play at Cedarburg Thursday, Oct. 6.

About Timm Snider

Timm Snider began his soccer career as a U-12 player in the first year club soccer started in Port Washington. At Port High, he made the NSC first team.

In 1990, at 21, Snider became the youngest coach to lead a team — the Port girls — to the state soccer tournament. He also coached the Grafton boys to the sectional finals in the early 1990s.

Snider ran a soccer store, Sportworks, ran youth camps and played on the Milwaukee Sport Club Major and Reserve teams.

He played soccer the night before his heart went into an abnormal arrhythmia, and he died at 32 in 2001.

Members of Snider’s family presented the trophy to the Pirates.

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Ozaukee Press

Wisconsin’s largest paid circulation community weekly newspaper. Serving Port Washington, Saukville, Grafton, Fredonia, Belgium, as well as Ozaukee County government. Locally owned and printed in Port Washington, Wisconsin.

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