It’s soccer time once again in DeKalb County, with the DCHS Tigers Soccer team readying for their season, but like other spring sports in the area the team has gotten off to a sloppy start. With all the snow and icy weather, the team has been forced to spend most of its preseason practicing in the school’s gym. Even so, Head Coach Dylan Kleparek, Coach K to his team, said his team is looking good.

"I think we’re looking pretty decent this year," Coach K told the Review during a preseason game on March 3. "We haven’t had a whole lot of practice with all the bad weather. This is our first preseason game, so we’re still seeing what we’re made of. We’ve got a lot of returning players and they have some talent and knowledge. We have good leadership and I feel pretty positive about it."

Coach K said that he has some returning players that he thinks will step up this season. "We have five seniors, good leaders that have been good players for four years. I’m looking forward to seeing them play well."

As for scheduling, the team will see the same old foes, with the addition of a new team on the field. "The schedule is pretty close to the same as last year. We changed our district up a little bit. We added a tenth team to our district, so we divided east and west. In the regular season our district contains us and Smith, Macon, Livingston and York. Merroll Hyde, Goodpasture, Central Magnet, Watertown, and Cannon County will make up the west half. In the end we’ll join back together and play for the tournament. The tenth team is Watertown, which is their first year for a soccer program."

As for the Tigers’ preseason game, the team took on Warren County in a hard-fought match. The Tigers struck first with a goal 16 minutes into play by Cristobal Flores, with an assist by Micah Merriman.

The Pioneers came back one minute later with a goal by Ethan Bandy, tying the score.

Brandon Leiser put the Tigers ahead again 25 minutes into play with a scoring penalty kick, but just three minutes later Warren’s James Jackson tied things up again with a goal.

A goal by Jakob Morin put the Pioneers in the lead 47 minutes into play, then Ethan Bandy added another 71 minutes into the game. Fernado Goana topped off the Pioneer’s score in the 77th minute with one final goal.

Leiser gave DeKalb another point from a penalty kick 80 minutes into play, but it would not be enough. Warren County took the win, 5-3.

The Tigers’ goalkeeper, Skylar Pease, had 13 saves in the game.