Will tackling dummies make a difference?

After starting the season 8-0, it was perhaps inevitable the Deerfield High School boys soccer team would hit a rough patch. That has happened.

The Warriors (8-3-3) are winless in 6 games. They have played some good soccer during that stretch, but Deerfield has had trouble finding the net of late.

In an effort to make his team more aggressive in the box, head coach Elliott Hurtig turned to the Warriors' football program for a little help.

On Monday afternoon, the coach borrowed tackling dummies for a new shooting drill. Players ran into the box, tackled a dummy, got up and served in a cross for a teammate to finish.

"It taught our guys to fight through plays and that not all goals are pretty. A lot of them are just about determination," Hurtig said. "I think they got the message.

"I had never done something like that before. But it just hit me, so to speak, that it would be a good way to get the players fired up about contact and to play with pure determination."

The Warriors' first chance to show they got the message came Tuesday at Niles North. They followed that up with last night's highly anticipated home game against rival Highland Park, a squad also having a good year.

Deerfield went 0-1-1 last week, losing 2-0 to New Trier and playing to a 0-0 tie with Maine West last Thursday.

New Trier is considered one of the top, if not the top, team in the state. In fact, many believe the team is better than the Trevians' 2006 squad, which captured the state title.

Against Deerfield, NT got both of its goals in the first half. The first came after 15 minutes and the second was scored in the 26th. The second goal came after a movement of seven or eight Trevians' passes and was put away with an almost unreachable shot into the upper corner of the net.

"I turned to our players and said 'we did nothing wrong,'" Hurtig said.

That score could have opened the floodgates for New Trier. But that was hardly the case. The Warriors held on for the rest of the first half and came out even stronger after the break, playing some of their best soccer of the season.

"We really regrouped at hafltime," Hurtig said. "We played the ball with confidence and were running fast off the ball. I had been trying to emphasize playing simply and playing the ball early and we did that in the second half."

Deerfield, however, was unable to find the net, which has been an all too common theme in recent games.

But Hurtig, for the most part, walked away encouraged.

"I told the guys that the kind of intensity and focus we displayed in the second half has to drive us all season," Hurtig said.

The coach was hoping the second-half performance would carry over two days later against Maine West. Deerfield had more possession and created more chances, but neither team was able to find the net.

Though there have been some struggles up front, Hurtig has been real pleased with the play of senior Evan Cohen on the backline.

"He's been having a fantastic season," Hurtig said. "Cohen is stepping up and making huge tackles for us and doing a nice job distributing the ball. He's good in the air and we're trying to work him into the box in order to score on more head balls on corner kicks."

After facing Highland Park, the Warriors will host Maine South at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Adams Field.

On Wednesday, Deerfield learned it would be the No. 5 seed in the Lake Zurich Sectional. The Warriors will begin postseason play on Oct. 1 against No. 11 Buffalo Grove.