Rehoboth blanks KC in 4-0 win: Lynx improve to 8-1-1 overall

REHOBOTH, N.M. – The Rehoboth Christian boys soccer team picked up its eighth shutout of the 2023 season.

The Lynx rebounded from its only blemish with a 4-0 win over Kirtland Central in a nondistrict game on Saturday morning. Earlier last week, the Lynx (8-1-1) came up short to Albuquerque Sandia Prep, 2-0, in its district opener with the Sundevils.

Second-year Rehoboth coach Philip Frederiksen said he was pleased with how his club played against the Sundevils.

“Sandia Prep is the back-to-back state champs,” he said. “They’re always a really tough team to play. They’re one of the best in the state, so our guys played really well.”

In Saturday’s game against KC, Rehoboth junior Morgan Arsenault scored twice while Garrett Van Slooten and Hendrick Ippel added the other scores for the Lynx.

Senior Liam Bia had two assists and Clayton Van Slooten had one.

“This was a good pick-me-up game for sure,” Frederiksen said of the shutout win. “Our defense was solid but to be honest I would have liked to see better passing from our guys today. We weren’t as sharp as we could be, but we got better as the game went on.”

Arsenault, who leads the team with 14 goals, agreed while adding that they were not in sync for much of the game.

“I know we can pass better, so it was kind of ugly,” he said. “We can play better than that, but we did play better in the second half.”

The Lynx is looking for its first district win when they host Albuquerque East Mountain (5-5) today at 5 p.m.

The Rehoboth coach said his club is looking at a runner-up finish behind Sandia Prep in the district race as the Lynx went 2-5-1 in league play last season. The rest of the league teams include Bosque and Oak Grove Classical Academy.

“That would be great, but it’s a tough district,” Frederiksen said. “We play some of the best teams in our division. East Mountain, Oak Grove and Bosque are all really good programs. On top of that, we got Sandia Prep, so we’re going to try and win every game. Second place in our district would be fantastic.”

Frederiksen said that’s very doable as the Lynx return a veteran squad that went 10-6-2 last season.

“We largely have the same group as last year,” Frederiksen said. “We only graduated two seniors and so that has been really great to watch these guys develop. They play well together and they’re a great, fun group of guys.”

With the Lynx missing the playoffs last season, Arsenault said it would be nice if they make state this year for the eight seniors on the squad.

“It would be awesome because I don’t think we’ve ever been to state,” he said of the current squad. “That would be great if we could go because I don’t think Rehoboth’s been to state in a while.”

Arsenault said the team’s skills set has improved and he credits that to playing club ball.

“Most of my teammates played with the Thunderbirds,” he said of the Gallup-based club team. “We played indoors with our coach and we just got a lot of touches on the ball.”

Those extra reps are paying dividends for the Lynx with its eight wins. Earlier this year the Rehoboth team captured its home tournament, which included an overtime win over Silver High in the championship game.

“That was a really tough game,” Frederiksen said. “They came up and did an awesome job. It went to penalty shots and we got them on that, so obviously our keeper made really clutch saves and our guys converted on their shots.”

The Lynx had Garrett Van Slooten, Liam Bia, Morgan Arsenault, Jonathan Zylstra and Trajan West nail goals during the title game as the Lynx went 5-4 in PKs.

“It felt great,” Arsenault said. “Our team was really happy about that because last year we lost in PKs to Miyamura. We missed one (goal) and this year we got all five.”

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