Stitt’s hat trick propels THS blowout

Erick Starkey
Posted 3/30/18

Torrington Trailblazer senior Nathan Stitt had a hat trick, which he paired with four assists, to guide the Blazers to an 8-1 win on the road Tuesday over Gering.

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Stitt’s hat trick propels THS blowout

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GERING, Neb. – Torrington Trailblazer senior Nathan Stitt had a hat trick, which he paired with four assists, to guide the Blazers to an 8-1 win on the road Tuesday over Gering.

The offensive fireworks were slow to get started by the Blazers. Anthony Munoz and Stitt each scored within the first 30 minutes of the game. In the 33rd minute, Stitt had a feed to Braeden Claussen for the goal and Torrington took that 3-0 lead into intermission.

Seven minutes into the second half, Stitt scored his second goal of the night, with the assist coming from Munoz. William Fluckiger knocked through his first goal of the season on a penalty kick with 17 minutes left on the clock. Josh Kingsley recorded another goal this spring, but Gering quickly responded, putting the score at 6-1.

The Stitt to Claussen connection was not done for the night, with the two linking up for another goal in the 68th minute to go up 7-1. Stitt capped off his night with a goal in the 78th minute, giving the Blazers the 8-1 edge.

“Offensively, I thought we did a great job of executing our game plan,” coach Jeshua Arnusch said. “We wanted to be very direct with our long balls and it really benefitted our forwards like Anthony Munoz, Braeden Claussen and Nathan Stitt. They took over and really let their chemistry show.”

When the dust settled, Stitt finished with three goals and four assists. Claussen settled for two goals, while Kingsley, Munoz and Fluckiger each had one. Munoz, along with Ethan Creagar, finishing with an assist apiece.

The Blazers outshot the Bulldogs 27-11 in the game.

On top of the offensive firepower, Torrington held its opponents to only one goal on 11 shots. Torrington keeper Daeden Morrow had 10 saves between the pipes.

“I thought we played a great game defensively and we really did a good job of funneling Gering’s attack to the sidelines,” Arnusch said. “We were physical and did a great job of keeping the ball in front of us when it was in the air.

“I was extremely excited about the play of our three center backs (Braden) Mechem, (Trace) English and (Ryan Johnson) RJ,” Arnusch added. “I was also excited to watch Chase Dominguez play today with the varsity defense. He looked solid in his first outing of the season.”

Torrington improved to 3-1 on the year after the win in Gering. The Blazers still have a 1-0 record in the 3A Southeast conference. Torrington returns home on Thursday to take on Newcastle starting at 6 p.m.

“Now we have to start to shift our focus on to Newcastle after Easter break,” Arnusch said. “They will definitely be better than last year because this will be the first year that they will bring up kids from their new middle school soccer team. It should be interesting.”