Following a pair of 2019 losses to Southmont, the Crawfordsville boys’ soccer team was ready to earn redemption against the Mounties on Thursday night.
And in the first Montgomery County matchup of the 2020-21 school year, the Athenians never backed down in a 9-1 blowout win over Southmont, securing the first County Chase points for Crawfordsville.
Kevin Barrera-Chinchilla picked up a hat trick for the Athenians (4-1, 2-0 SAC), including two goals midway through the first half to give the Athenians an early 2-0 lead.
Thursday was the fifth outing for the Athenians, and just the second for the Mounties in the early part of the season — and after a shortened summer due the COVID-19 pandemic — it showed.
“The more game experience you have, especially when you look at what’s happened over the spring and summer — the better the kids are going to be,” Crawfordsville coach Marcus Hale said. “I think we did a lot better job on a lot of fronts tonight, playing with more consistency throughout the game.”
Crawfordsville fired 18 first half shots, including 11 on goal, and led 5-0, as the Mounties (1-1) wore down quickly.
“I think for us, we didn’t play Tuesday and not having practice,” Southmont coach Stephanie Kennedy said. “I think with the heat this week, we just got out of conditioning. We got tired real fast and had a lot of defensive breakdowns.”
The Athenians added four second half goals, while Beck McIntyre put the Mounties on the board with a goal on a penalty kick.
Emmett Bowman scored twice and had an assist, while Barrera-Chinchilla added three assists. Andrew Jones, Alex Caballero, Dwane Macias, and Patrick Corado each had a goal, while Corado had three assists, and Eli Reeves added an assist. Landon Timmons had five saves defensively for Crawfordsville
The balance offensively has been key for Crawfordsville in the early part of the season.
“It really helps having a lot of flexilbity,” Hale said. “What it really does is help a number of other players, instead of being keyed on. When you have a player that scores the most goals, they’re going to accumulate the most attention. So it’s pretty distributed and the fact the goals are coming from so many different players is really a good thing for us.”
Crawfordsville is back on the pitch at home on Tuesday against Covington, while Southmont hosts North Montgomery. Kennedy hopes to see her team persevere in future games.
“Just being smart,” she said. “You’re going to be tired, so you just have to make the right decisions at the right time.”
