Rockets’ nonconference carnage continues on the pitch

Four games into the season, the Cedar Grove-Belgium High School girls’ soccer team has yet to face a team from a school anywhere near its size.

And the Rockets won all of them by blowout.

The latest victory came at home Friday against Kewaskum and its 594 students, more than double Cedar Grove-Belgium’s 291. The Rockets won, 8-0, in a game cut short via the mercy rule.

On April 8, the Rockets should have beaten Fond du Lac (1,913 students) in the same manner, but a slow second half kept it to a 6-1 win.

“Another couple of good days at the office, that’s for sure,” Coach Zac Garza said.

Fond du Lac was similar to other large schools the Rockets have played such as Green Bay Preble – “a lot of speed of play and physicality,” Garza said.

“It’s been good for our group to go against these types of teams because those are the kind of teams we’re going to see in the postseason.”

The defending Division 4 champs were moved to Division 3 for the playoffs this year through the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s competitive balance initiative.

Thirteen minutes into the game against Fond du Lac, the Rockets held a 5-0 lead.

Star Cora Erickson, an all-state player who is on pace to break the state’s career goals record for girls and has committed to Eastern Illinois, keeps raising the bar.

“She went 4-for-4. Four shorts, four goals, and she played maybe 30 minutes. This is how dominant she was. She was unbelievable,” Garza said, adding Erickson is scoring on 60% of her shots this season.

Grace Konzak and Gracie Schmidt each had a goal and an assist. Arden Getschman had three assists and Aubrey Marti had one. Keeper Aubrey Johnson had four saves.

The Rockets led, 5-0, at halftime and were well on their way to reaching the eight-goal, 60-minute mercy rule, but it didn’t happen.

“We were disappointed in our second half, in particular,” Garza said.

“That’s one of the first moments where we saw complacency with our team. That was a game that 100% should not have gone to the 80 minutes. It is nice to get some touches for our bench players, but we’re trying to create a ruthless mentality and finish games off, especially against quality competition.”

As a result, Kewaskum picked the wrong time to play the Rockets.

Cedar Grove-Belgium took a 5-0 halftime lead again, and this time finished the job, scoring their eighth goal in 62 minutes.

Erickson had three goals and two assists. Schmidt had one goal and three assists. Getschman scored twice. Konzak and Marti each had a goal and an assist.

Johnson didn’t need to make a save.

“That’s the first time that I can remember that we held a team to not a single shot for the entire match — no shots, period,” Garza said.

“That was just a dominant performance from start to finish from our entire group.”

He praised all-state defender Olivia Bahr, the Erickson equivalent on the other side of the field.

“She’s somebody who has been amazing for us her entire career, but this year it seems like she has elevated herself even further and particularly on the ball,” Garza said. “We’re connecting passes out of the back and we’re able to control the ball. She makes everybody around her better.”

Garza also praised sophomore Claire Prinsen for her play at right back. After playing keeper for her entire career who backed up Johnson last season, she told Garza she wanted to play the field with aspirations to play in college.

“She worked incredibly hard in the offseason, got a lot of touches in. She came into the season really hard and quick, made good decisions. She’s incredibly tenacious, really good on the ball,” Garza said. “She’s another contributor to why we can connect passes out of the back. For her first attempt starting on a team in back says a lot about her. No single coach on our staff would have expected that, at least not so soon.”

The Rockets have outscored their first four opponents, 27-3, but Garza said that’s not due to lack of competition.

“I think the scorelines make these teams look a lot weaker than they are. Not a single team we’ve faced so far has been an opponent where we should get out early.”

Some of the Rockets’ biggest challenges may come against teams from schools their own size. They were to start Big East Conference play by hosting Howards Grove (3-0, 266 students) on Tuesday, April 15, and play at nonconference powerhouse Kiel (2-1, 420) on Thursday, April 17. Kiel beat the Rockets in the 2023 state title game in overtime and advanced to the state tourney last season.

“It’s a big week,” Garza said.