Dowagiac soccer coach Mike Williams was hoping that visiting Covert would be a good test for the Chieftains in their season opener Tuesday.

He was right.

“I expected them (Covert) to be a tough team and they were,”  Williams said. “They were

tougher than I thought. They were definitely scrappers.”

Dowagiac got three goals from Alec Saylor and defeated the Bulldogs 4-2 in a non-conference match that was an even bigger challenge than he imagined.

The Chieftains (1-0) led 2-0 at halftime thanks to goals by Mariano Brito in the eighth minute and Saylor in the 15th minute.

The lead grew to 3-0 when Saylor scored his second goal of the match in the 43rd minute.

That is when things got interesting.

The Bulldogs came alive following a goal in the 57th minute to cut the lead to 3-1.

Saylor completed the hat trick in the 62nd minute to give Dowagiac a three-goal cushion once again.

But Covert would score again five minutes later to cut the lead back down to two goals, 4-2, and have several quality scoring chances against the Chieftains before time ran out.

“We had five scrimmages, so we got to see a lot of different things,” Wiliams said. “One of the things we do well is move the ball around. But we were moving it around too many times between spaces tonight instead of opening it up. We were passing too many times and feeding it to the center too many times.

“We are good at it when it was there, but we did not feed out enough and run the line and put it across. That is what we are going to be working on tomorrow during our game at Buchanan. So, we will be working on it in a game. They know how to do it. It was probably first game jitters.”

The Chieftains are back in action Wednesday as it travels to Buchanan for a non-conference match.

On Saturday, Dowagiac will host the annual Chieftain Invitational.

Dowagiac will host Cassopolis and Fennville in the Chieftain Invitational Soccer Tournament Saturday.

The Chieftains and Rangers will play at 10 a.m. before Cassopolis takes on Fennville at 11:30 a.m.

Dowagiac and Fennville will wrap up round robin play at 1 p.m.

The champion will be based on head-to-head competition. In case of a tie, total goals allowed will be the first tiebreaker and then total goal difference.

“Looking forward to our tournament on Saturday,” Williams said. “We have three teams that are relatively even matched. All teams have the ability to put in goals. The winner will be the team that has the best defense that can stop the counters of the dangerous players each team has.