News Photo by James Andersen Alpena defenders Cam Young, left, and Julian Stevens attempt to wrestle the ball away from a Gaylord player on Thursday during a boys soccer game at Park Family Field at Wildcat Stadium. Alpena rallied to beat the Blue Devils 2-1.

ALPENA — The Alpena boys soccer team secured a tough comeback victory on Thursday against Gaylord. The Wildcats won 2-1 after putting lots of pressure on the goal in the second half to fight back into the game.

“I liked the fact that we showed a lot of heart tonight. Gaylord always shows tremendous heart, they’re the hardest working team we play, and for us to come back from a 1-0 deficit at halftime shows a lot about us and our character,” Alpena coach Tim Storch said. 

Although the Wildcats came out on top, the game didn’t start the way they expected. Gaylord took an early 1-0 lead in the game after scoring around 25 minutes into the first half. 

“We got countered on that first goal which is something we really need to work on because that has happened to us several times throughout the season so far,” Storch said.

The remainder of the first half was filled with strong defense and many great saves from Alpena’s first goalie Michael Herrmann. 

Alpena caught a massive break towards the end of the first half when the Blue Devils’ goalie went down with an injury, forcing him out for the rest of the game.

By halftime, Alpena only had three shots on goal while Gaylord had six, but this was soon to change for the Wildcats. Alpena decided to make a goalie change at half subbing in sophomore Preston Schuldt. 

“We’ve been doing this quite a bit this year because we have two really good keepers. They’re both very equal and both deserve to play on this team,” Storch said.

The second half started off slow until 18:32 when Alpena struck for its first goal of the game. Jack Cook was the first to score for the Wildcats after making an acrobatic finish, tying the game up 1-1.

Just eight minutes after that score, Alpena struck again. This time Gabe Glawe put it through the net. Glawe’s shot gave the Wildcats all the momentum to finish out the game with a 2-1 final score. 

“I thought both Jack Cook and Gabe Glawe had strong games all game long. It was nice to see Jack (Cook) light it up and score that goal to put us back in it and it was even better to see Gabe (Glawe) score the game-winner,” Storch said.

The Wildcats’ defense in the second half held the Blue Devils to just one shot. Alpena rarely let the ball onto their side of the field in the second half after putting constant pressure on Gaylord’s goal.

“Our defense has been the strength of our team. In the flow of the game, I thought we defended them well as they have two very strong attacking players which we held to just one goal.” Storch said.

Alpena plays at Cadillac on Tuesday.