The Evanston High School soccer teams closed out the regular season on the road at Casper over the weekend, with both the Red Devils and Lady Devils going 0-2 against Kelly Walsh and Natrona County.

Both teams opened play Friday against Kelly Walsh, with the Lady Devils falling to their hosts 6-0; the Red Devils were shutout by the No. 2 Trojans 9-0.

Against Natrona County the following day, the Lady Devils kept it close, but were unable to crack the scoreboard in a 2-0 loss; the Red Devils also struggled to score, though they were able to create a few opportunities in a 4-0 loss.

Both teams will travel to Star Valley Thursday for the opening round of the 4A West Regional Tournament, with the No. 7 Lady Devils squaring off against No. 2 Jackson, and the No. 6 Red Devils facing No. 3 Rock Springs.

Red Devils

Against the No. 2-ranked Trojans, Friday, Evanston head coach Brian Richins said the score wasn’t indicative of his team’s effort in the 9-0 loss.

“I felt like against Kelly Walsh we played pretty well, honestly,” Richins said. “We had some attacking opportunities, we played a lot of guys in an effort to manage minutes. I really felt the Natrona County game was the game we needed to come away with up there as far as seeding in the playoffs go, so we played deep on our bench on Friday night, and I was actually really impressed with how everyone did. I thought the guys went out on the field and gave us a really good effort and did some good things.”

Against Natrona, an early 2-0 deficit proved to be a momentum-killer, as well as a means for taking the Red Devils out of their game plan.

“On Saturday, I felt like we were ready to compete against Natrona,” Richins said.” I know we gave up two early goals almost back-to-back and just kind of got a little deflated, and then we weren’t able to find our own. We had several opportunities that were right in front of net; we just didn’t even get a shot off, there was just like congestion and traffic right in front of the net that we just got shut down. So that was a little harder to take.”

Asked how giving up a quick two goals affected the team, Richins said it effectively changed the way the team approached the attack.

“It really kind of sucks the wind out of your sails — it’s a challenge to score in soccer anyway, then when you’re put in a position where you have to, everything gets a little tighter and everything starts pressing more,” Richins explained. “So, we had kind of a mixture of those things happening, and then we just really struggled to get shots away cleanly. And I mean, I credit NC for that, they defended us really well. We got Jordan free a couple of times, we got Brooks in the open and they passed well to each other, but in the end, they just couldn’t find that final ball.”

Facing the possibility of going into this weekend’s 4A West Regional Tournament as the No. 7-seed, the Red Devils needed a little help to avoid the prospect of facing either Kelly Walsh or Jackson in Thursday’s play-in game. They found that help in the form of longtime rival Star Valley, who — with a 2-1 win over Riverton Friday — guaranteed Evanston the No. 6 seed.

“The best news of the weekend was that Star Valley beat Riverton Friday night, which made it so we could not possibly end up in 7th,” Richins said. “We got the No. 6 seed, we really wanted the 5 seed, our goal was to be playing Star Valley in that 5 v. 4 match; unfortunately we didn’t get that, but we matched up well against Rock Springs both times we played them, so we feel pretty good going into this week.”

The Red Devils will head into Thursday’s game relatively healthy, though a few key players are still nursing nagging injuries they’ve been dealing with for much of the season.

“We got a little banged up, nothing serious, but we didn’t have Jay all weekend, he had done some knee damage against Riverton, so he was in street clothes,” Richins said. “That NC game, they may have hurt us a little, we had three of our four starters out in the backline.”

The Red Devils have an interesting history with Rock Springs when it comes to play-in games, having beat the Tigers a couple of seasons ago for the program’s first-ever trip to State. Richins is also close with the Tigers’ coach, though when it comes down to it, he won’t hesitate to send them home.

“Rock Springs — we’ve been in really, really good battles with them, so I think it’s a good draw for us,” Richins said. “It’s interesting — I think all three of my sons played Rock springs in the play-in game, and I think we played them three of the last four years, maybe the last four of five years in this playoff playing game, because we beat them to go to state. I‘d like to not to — I actually really love their coach, I think he’s just a great guy. I hate to have them stay home, but if it’s gotta come down to us or them, I’d rather it be them.”

As for what it will take to come out on top against the Tigers, Richins said it will come down to creating opportunities — and then capitalizing on them.

“We gotta create more chances to score, and we gotta take advantage of those chances, that’s number one,” he said. “Then we gotta do a good job of shifting in our defense — they really put a lot of pressure on your opposite outside backs where the ball is coming out one side of the field and then they’ll switch, a big switch to the other side and try to get a one v. one, so we’ve gotta be aware of that. We still have to be physical and play hard, and that’s the balance I’m having a struggle with — how to coach my guys to be physical, but we gotta be careful in our fouling.”