Once Rocks get Goeh-ing, Blue Devils unable to slow them down while suffering WB6 loss

QUINCY — Goeh means go.

The Quincy High School boys soccer team had no way to stop that.

Rock Island forward Benjamin Goeh netted the first of his three goals Tuesday night in the 14th minute, setting the stage for the Rocks to roll out of Flinn Stadium with a 4-1 Western Big 6 Conference victory and back-to-back four-goal efforts in league play.

“When you’re at Quincy, you know you have to score,” Rocks coach Zach Vroman said. “We know they’re coming. We know they’re very, very good. You know one goal is just not going to win.”

Goeh has back-to-back hat tricks in WB6 play and 13 goals in the Rocks’ first six games.

“We have a lot of team speed,” Vroman said. “When you have that and are able to work your way up the field rather than just booting, which we’ve been trying to get away from, you can find success. But when you have offensive weapons like that, it also gets really easy to just collect and kick.

“We’ve really been preaching working the ball up the field and using everybody. They’re going to see the results of that. In the first half, we relied on the collect and kick a little too much. The third goal and the fourth goal, we were really moving the ball well.”

That kind of connection and fluidity is what the Blue Devils are trying to find.

“We were overmatched at the beginning by (Goeh), who is a really fast, strong, athletic, physical kid,” QHS coach Ron Bridal said. “We had to be a little bit fluid to try to match that. I think we had a difficult time matching their athleticism tonight.”

Logan Epping scored an unassisted goal for the Blue Devils in the 71st minute, helping them avoid the shutout and find a spark ahead of Thursday’s game against Quincy Notre Dame at Advance Physical Therapy Field.

“We just have to keep bringing the energy and keep moving forward,” Epping said. “We’re a solid team. There are still more conference games to come, so we still have a chance to win.”

The Blue Devils (1-6, 1-1 WB6) believe things will ultimately click into place.

“All the time, all the time,” Epping said. “We’re a talented team. We just have to keep working the ball and keep playing our soccer and we will win games.”

The Rocks (4-2, 2-0 WB6) kept that from happening by continually applying pressure.

A loose ball found Goeh’s foot in the 22nd minute, and he cut back inside a defender and ripped a left-footed shot into the upper right corner for a 2-0 advantage. Roughly 14 minutes into the second half, off a ball played from the right corner, Goeh knocked it down, collected it and hammered a low right-footed shot from 12 yards out that bulleted through the QHS defense for a 3-0 lead.

The Rocks scored their final goal with 10 minutes to play.

“Every time you come to Quincy, you have to be ready for a tough game,” Vroman said. “I’m really, really proud of our boys. They worked hard.”

One-third of the way through the regular season, the Blue Devils remain optimistic things will turn around. Epping’s late goal signified that.

“He really earned it with his tenacity on that goal and his effort to get around the defender and really earn a physical goal,” Bridal said. “It was a good goal for Logan, and I think it was a good goal for us to just show we’re not going to just give up and we’re going to battle until the final whistle.”