NorthWood’s Sebastian Guillen unloads a shot past a sliding Jakob Jones of Valley Thursday in the season opener for both teams. (Photos by Mike Deak)

NAPPANEE – It took NorthWood about 10 minutes to wake up. Once they got going, there was no stopping them.

The Panthers boys soccer team got its first goal at the 10-minute mark, then poured it on an overwhelmed Tippecanoe Valley side in a 11-0 result Thursday in the season opener for both clubs.

In a match that saw the Panthers pile together 30 shots and hold Valley without one the entire night, it was just a matter of finishing for the home side.

Jerson Sanchez of NorthWood takes one of 30 Panther shots.

“We came out a little bit flat, but it was good to see the guys pick it up after about 10 minutes,” said NorthWood head coach Brad Duerksen. “Our defense was pretty organized and we held them to no shots on goal. I’m pleased with that. But, we have to be a lot better against the competition coming up.”

About the only thing Duerksen didn’t like about his team’s opener were some sloppy connections in the second half. To be fair, as he noted, it came with a nine-plus goal lead for much of the second half. But knowing his team has bigger fish to fry, starting with a Saturday challenge against Angola then a whopper of a Northern Lakes Conference opener against Northridge next Thursday, minor lapses weren’t a huge deal. The Raiders, however, posted an eye-opening 6-1 win Tuesday over the Penn Kingsmen.

“We won’t be able to take 10 minutes off against a team like Northridge,” Duerksen said. “They will give you about 30 seconds. We have to come out more mentally focused than we were today. That Northridge game is a pretty good rivalry game for us. The conference is loaded again, as usual. We’re excited to put this one behind us, get the win, and look forward to Saturday with Angola and then into the frying pan.”

Sebastian Guillen notched a hat trick for the Panthers, one of four players to get multiple goals. Andy Duran, Andre De Freitas and Kayden Newcomer all had two goals while Chandler Bontrager and Lukas Aukerman each potted one goal. Landon Parker led the assist parade with three helpers.

For first-year head coach Andrew Luce, his Vikings have a lot of work to do. Keeping in perspective what his very inexperienced team was up against in NorthWood, Luce was looking for small tokens. Some were found, otherwise are still needing light.

“The one thing that I was the most upset about at halftime was the complaining and yelling at each other,” said Luce, who on numerous occasions had to reel his defenders back from confrontations within their own ranks. “We need to leave the negativity out and encourage the correct, build ourselves up positively. That in itself was probably the most disappointing thing I saw in the first half.”

Valley keeper Alex Aguilar was under siege all game, and did what he could with 12 saves. Valley only mounted two pointed attacks the entire match, both coming in the second half that were thwarted by a retreating Panther defense. Luce, however, pointed to those as promise.

“We still aren’t real crisp on our touch and on our passing skills. That’s something we’ll need to address,” Luce said. “It was encouraging to see us make a few runs in the second half when everyone was getting tired. To see effort for 80 minutes was a positive. We need to work together more on getting rid of some of the negative, but three games in four days, and all at home, those games should be a little more competitive.”

NorthWood (1-0) will host Angola Saturday morning while Valley (0-1) will begin a three-games-in-four-days stretch next week starting with Maconaquah Monday afternoon in its home opener.

Tippecanoe Valley’s Arturo Dominguez distributes the ball against NorthWood.