For the first time in this season, the Dowagiac soccer team tasted defeat as Wolverine Conference foe Three Rivers edged the Chieftains 2-1 Wednesday.

Also for the first time this season, Dowagiac was unable to find the back of the net, despite outshooting the Wildcats 25-3.

“As you can see by the difference in shots, we were unable to get past their keeper,” said Dowagiac coach Mike Williams. “He [Brandon Grafe] did a great job supporting their defense and running the back end of the field. They were able to capitalize on two out of the three shots they had during the game. 

“We were out of position and not marked up on two occasions and that cost us the game. Besides that, we played a really good game and moved the ball well. We had great offensive attacks, but fell short today. We will look to learn from that and prepare for Saturday.”

The Chieftains will travel to Parchment for a tournament on Saturday.

Three Rivers led 1-0 just three minutes into the match on a goal by Derek Veenstra off a throw-in by Justin Garza.

Dowagiac was able to tie the score at 1-1 on a goal by Cristian Wilson in the 18th minute only to have Nick Katsaras score the second Wildcat goal of the night three minutes later.

The Chieftains tightened things up defensively in the final 40 minutes, but could not get the ball past Grafe or the Wildcats’ defense.

The loss drops Dowagiac to 6-1 on the year and squares its Wolverine Conference record at 1-1.

Edwardsburg soccer

EDWARDSBURG — Host Edwardsburg improved to 2-0 in the Wolverine Conference with a 3-2 victory over Otsego Wednesday.

Ian Wagner, Isaac Thoms and Ben Kraus scored for the Eddies. Merick Evans had a pair of assists as Edwardsburg improved to 7-1-1 overall.