Panthers Press and Punish: Newberry Rolls 3–1 Over Oak Hall
The Newberry boys soccer team bounced back from its first loss of the season in style Tuesday night, cruising to a 3–1 road victory against Oak Hall with a first-half brace from striker Alonso Bautro.
The Panthers (5–1) came out flying with high pressure, pinning the Eagles (1-4) in their own half and forcing turnovers. Captain Lucas Nowels forced the first save in the 13th minute and freshman winger Daniel Rodriguez nearly broke the deadlock seven minutes later with a curling shot that skipped just wide.
Bautro opened the scoring in the 17th minute by smashing a first-time right-footed strike into the top corner.
Oak Hall responded five minutes later when Ricardo Alvarado slid a low shot between the keeper’s legs off a perfectly weighted through ball from Rex Haberman.
Newberry’s reaction was immediate. On the next play after the restart, midfielder Dylan Mobbs scored a driven shot to the far post off an assist from Hendrix Dietz in the 23rd minute.
Before the half-hour mark, center back Jerrad Maturo found Bautro with a 40-yard through ball, and the junior twisted past a defender twice before scoring his second goal. All three Newberry goals came within the first 30 minutes and Bautro’s brace boosted his season total to eight goals in six games.
The Panthers then shifted into a more compact formation by maintaining the 3–1 lead into halftime.
“We wanted to bounce back from the Eastside loss. We only wanted to win tonight,” Bautro said. “It’s our last game before Thanksgiving break and we feel like our biggest competition is in districts — we’re going for back-to-back district championships and aim to go further than regionals this year.”
The second half focused on game management. Newberry slowed the pace, controlled possession and limited Oak Hall to just one shot on target, while Bautro nearly scored a hat trick with a late double chance.
“We practice every day, there are no days off,” NHS coach Nathan Smith said. “Elite is nothing more than mastery of the basics.”
Smith also praised his striker and main goal scorer for taking on a simple, disciplined role up front.
“Alonso came to us last year super fast, super agile,” he said. “His job is to stay out front, stay as high as he possibly can. He doesn’t get fancy — he just gets in position and taps it in.”
Newberry now heads into a crucial home stretch, beginning with a non-district matchup against undefeated Buchholz (6-0) on Dec. 2.
Oak Hall returns home Thursday night to host University Christian (2-1-1).
Category: High School Sports, Newberry High School, Oak Hall High School, Soccer
