Sandwiched in the middle of a busy week of matches for the Evanston High School boys’ soccer team was the Red Devils’ home opener against 4A West rival Star Valley, a game head coach Brian Richins always has circled on his calendar each season.

“We always seem to be at our best when we play them,” Richins said of the Braves. “Especially at home.”

Carrying over the momentum of the Lady Devils’ 3-1 win over SV earlier in the afternoon, Evanston was on the front foot from the start, enduring a 0-0 first half and scoring a pair of goals in the second to win 2-1.

“It was good to welcome back several players who had been missing through the spring break process,” Richins said. “That made a big difference. And then to get with them a bit of freshness in their legs — that helped as well. But being home, being in our locker room, in our field — the facility we have here is just incredible. We’ve come from having maybe the worst facility in the state, to one of the great facilities in the state. And we just play better when we’re here.”

After a scoreless first half — in which Evanston was not without opportunities — the offense picked up the pace in the second, determined to make the most of homefield advantage.

The Red Devils finally broke the stalemate in the 54th minute, after Evanston was awarded a penalty kick.

“It was a throw-in from the far side, and Eldon Hogman made a run through the goal box, and the guy right in behind him brought him down,” Richins explained. “It was an easy call. It was a two-hand shot in the back — Eldon’s not a big guy, but he doesn’t go down easy. So it was obvious that he had taken quite a bit of contact.”

With Evanston’s primary penalty kick-taker having just left the game to get a minor injury tended to, it fell to someone else on the field to take the shot.

Angel Gonzales, come on down.

Gonzales, as it turns out, was more than up to the task, giving the Red Devils a 1-0 lead.

“Interestingly enough, our penalty kicker is Jordan Mendez, and he had been in a big crash on the field just moments earlier,” Richins explained. “I wanted to get him off and take a look at it and see if he was OK. So he was on the sideline when that happened. We truly have not gone over PKs at all – we haven’t even attempted one, they’re that infrequent. We’ve been focusing on fundamentals, getting our footwork right. So that has not been something we’ve talked about or even covered. But I knew Angel was up for it — he’s a calm kid in front of the net. I was really happy to see him lock that in.”

Mendez would have his shot a short time later, a rebound made possible by teammate Brooks Searle’s sacrifice, according to Richins.

“On that play, you have two guys that are aggressively trying to score,” Richins said. “Brooks gets tangled up with the goalie, and Jordan has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. He hustled through the play, and was able to clean it up. But Brooks definitely had a hand in scoring that goal.”

“It’s too bad you can’t give it to them both,” Richins added, laughing.

Star Valley eventually got on the board by way of a penalty kick of their own, wrecking keeper Jaeger Liechty’s shot at a clean sheet. The senior captain still played an outstanding game, according to Richins.

“Jaeger’s having a really good season,” Richins said. “I mean, he’s had two 15-save games this year, which, I mean, when you talk about a goalkeeper having 15 saves in a game, that’s unheard of. He’s been really, really solid. And it’s been really good to see. He’s worked hard to become a good goalkeeper, and, you know, from where he was as a sophomore to where he is now, it’s a credit to the kind of kid he is.”

Heading into a new week, Richins said he’s still a little bothered by the two matches that bookended Thursday’s emotional win against Star Valley — a 3-0 loss to Riverton Tuesday, and a 15-1 drubbing at the hands of No.1 Jackson Saturday.

The Riverton loss is one the Red Devils will have a chance to avenge this week, as the Wolverines visited Kay Fackrell Stadium Tuesday, after press time.

“I really felt like we gave ourselves good opportunities to score against Riverton – we just had a couple of lapses, but they were able to get goals,” Richins said. and it’s funny how, you know, a second goal actually kind of turns the tide on you, so you lose a little bit of determination, maybe, and so I think an early goal, or a goal against them, would have been wind in our sails, which probably would have changed the outcome of that game. We didn’t get it, so that was a disappointing game to me. I really felt like, talent-wise, we matched up really well against them.”

The Jackson loss is a little tougher to swallow — not just for the lopsided score, but for the circumstances surrounding it.

“Credit to the guys that came,” Richins said. “We had a bit of trouble that morning. Some guys missed the bus and left us shorthanded ... so that was discouraging. But, man, the guys that went there, you sure don’t fault their effort. They worked hard, and Jackson’s a really good team. I would like to see us not give up double-digit goals ever. It’s really not much to talk about other than I’m proud of the boys and the effort they gave.”