Green Bay Preble boys soccer remains optimistic for postseason run despite first FRCC loss of season

GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Preble boys soccer team’s hopes of winning at least a share of the Fox River Classic Conference for the second time in three seasons took a big hit after a 2-0 loss to De Pere on Tuesday.

The Redbirds not only dealt the Hornets their first league loss of the season, but they also vaulted over them and Green Bay Notre Dame in the 10-team league with three conference games remaining.

De Pere entered Thursday 5-0-1 in conference, ahead of Notre Dame (4-0-2), Preble (3-1-2) and Sheboygan North (3-1-2).

There is a chance the Hornets will get an opportunity for revenge against the Redbirds if the teams meet in a WIAA Division 1 tournament game at the end of the month, but there is little question De Pere has controlled the series the last few seasons.

Preble went 6-0 against De Pere from 2015 to 2019 but is 1-4-1 since the alternate fall season, including two losses in sectional title games.

Those four defeats have come by a combined five goals, with three of the four decided by one goal.

“I think that’s how even we are as programs,” longtime Preble coach Chris Becker said. “I just feel like they have been able to get that extra goal more than us the last couple years. It is what it is. We’ve had some very successful runs where we didn’t win in the conference, and then we beat the team that beat us in conference to go to state.

“It goes back and forth. De Pere is a really good program. They are really well-coached. They got up early on us, and we just couldn’t find the back of the net. We outshot them. We had more opportunities and couldn’t finish.”

Preble is No. 5 in the D1 state rankings, and although the loss likely will knock it down or maybe even out of the rankings, it has legitimate hopes of making it to the state tournament next month for the 11th time in program history and the first since 2018.

Hornets have top-notch defense

If defense really does win championships, Preble should be in good shape.

The Hornets have allowed only eight goals behind a unit that includes standout defenders in seniors Gavin Urben and Derek Metz and the goalie duo of seniors Jack Thorpe and Eric Janus.

Urben, a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay recruit, and Metz have been rock-solid all season, while other players like sophomore Huj Chi Vang have stepped up.

Thorpe came out for soccer for the first time at Preble and has allowed 0.62 goals in more than 500 minutes, while Janus has allowed 0.18 goals in more than 400 minutes.

Preble has allowed one or fewer goals in 12 of 14 games and has permitted no more than two goals in any match.

It had an impressive string of six straight shutouts in August and September and has blanked opponents 57.1% of the time.

The program has put together several impressive defenses since Becker took over midway through the 2003 season.

The 2013 squad that reached the state title game still boasts the second-longest scoreless streak in state history after opponents went 1,005 minutes between goals. It held the record until Oregon broke it with 1,043 minutes in 2018.

Preble had another impressive defense when it again reached the title game in 2016, losing a 1-0 heartbreaker to Milwaukee Marquette.

This defense has a good argument as one of the top five in the Becker era.

If it plays as well as it can, it will be a difficult squad to eliminate come tournament time.

The Hornets might need only one or two scores from an offense featuring all-conference talent Abraham Navarro, who leads the team with nine goals.

“I have a lot of guys thinking about playing high-level college soccer,” Becker said. “So, these guys are ready. I think this defense is going to be a force to reckon with.”

No place like home for Preble

The game against De Pere was just the second true home game this season for the Hornets.

Preble installed a turf field during the offseason which wasn’t completed until last month.

Its first game on the new surface was Sept. 14, but a multigame homestand last week was forced to be moved to UWGB because of an issue with the track surrounding the field.

With those issues resolved, the Hornets can play actual home games. They also can practice either on the turf field or on the grass field behind Preble instead of driving a couple of miles to Willow Creek Park each day.

Players now can lift weights after school and walk out the door to practice rather than hop in a car.

All those little things add up.

“Finally, we are going to have some consistency of what the rest of the year is going to look like,” Becker said. “We are not going to say, ‘Hey, where do we get to play today?’ There was so much unknown about this season. Do we get to practice there, or do we have to go to Willow Creek or behind Preble?

“I feel like now, after this last game, every single game from now on will be at Preble. That’s kind of a weight off our shoulders. Now, we can relax. We know what’s going on. We don’t need to worry about where we are going to be or what is going to happen. Hopefully, it’s that little extra we need to get going for the playoffs.”

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Preble has come a long way in Becker’s tenure. His first season coaching was the first year the Hornets played home games at Preble instead of Green Bay East.

He remembers how that first game years ago on the old grass at Preble’s Gauthier Family Stadium was electric. Now, it’s even better with a turf field in a newly renovated stadium.

“Preble had such a bad field for so long compared to everybody else,” Becker said. “The appreciation I have is through the roof. I really want to say thank you to those taxpayers for saying yes and voting yes (on the referendum). It is going to make a world of difference, not only for soccer but for all Preble athletics.”

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay Preble boys soccer eyes state run despite loss to De Pere