Both the North Montgomery and North Putnam girls’ soccer teams entered Thursday’s matchup needing wins. With each team losing two of its last three games, the contest between the Chargers and Cougars carried more weight heading into the latter half of the 2022 season. With an efficient output on both sides, North Montgomery pulled away and delivered its third shutout of the year, 4-0, over North Putnam.
The Chargers’ momentum started early. Just five minutes into the match, senior forward Teegan Bacon found a seam in the Cougars’ defense and placed a shot just past the goalie’s fingertips to give North Montgomery a 1-0 lead. Despite the quick start, North Putnam countered nicely. Multiple shots from freshman Kassidy Hackleman and freshman Baylee Turner kept the Charger defense on their toes. For the next ten minutes, the Cougars maintained possession on the offensive side, but could not generate any goals.
On another quick fast break, Bacon broke loose once more. One-on-one with the goalie at the 26-minute mark, Bacon showed some finesse and put the ball into the net uncontested for a 2-0 lead. She didn’t stop there. Moments later, Bacon created more space and produced a hat trick in just 21 minutes of play. With 19 minutes remaining in the first half, the scoreboard favored the Chargers 3-0.
Although North Montgomery created an early deficit, North Putnam certainly had many close opportunites. The Cougars continued to pressure the Charger defense with methodical possession and a multitude of shots on goal. Yet, North Putnam just could not find space past sophomore goalkeeper Ella Smith, and the match went into halftime 3-0.
After a fierce halftime speech from Head Coach Allison Everman, the Cougars battled with the Chargers for much of the second half. Neither team could piece together meaningful possession in the back-and-forth opening minutes. North Putnam began to chip away in the possession battle, and created multiple good looks for shots on goal. Yet, Smith and the North Montgomery defense stood tall and held on to the team’s shutout. And with time beginning to wind down, Bacon added another goal for good measure. Her fourth of the match gave the Chargers a 4-0 lead, which remained the score for the remainder of the contest.
The third victory of the season was also the 100th win in program history for North Montgomery. With a big storyline win for the Chargers, coach Julie Hodges hopes this can bring momentum for the team moving forward.
“We keep telling them we’ve got to find a way to turn the corner,” she said. “This was big for us. We’ve got some big conference games coming up, and we’ve got to find a way to flip that switch and bring momentum into those conference games. Nothing’s easy in the Sagamore Conference. So that’s a big thing we want to get going here before we had into the long conference run at the end of our season.”
On the flip side, Everman did find some positive takeaways for North Putnam despite the result on the scoreboard.
“There were some solid plays,” she said. “We had solid touches and give-and-goes, we just didn’t connect. It’s a very young team. They really are getting a lot of varsity experience, and I think a lot of these nerves playing at the varsity level will be gone by next year. I’m excited about that.”
While Bacon is sure to get the recognition for yet another multi-goal outburst, North Montgomery truly executed in all facets of the game Thursday.
“We really think [possession] was the difference maker for us tonight,” Hodges said. “Even though Teegan’s the only one that scored, all four goals were assisted. We had lots of shots from a lot of different players, which allowed us to wear down the other team’s defense. And our defensive positioning was probably the best we’ve had all season.”
While the Chargers get a rest and do not return to action until Tuesday, the Cougars have a bounce-back opportunity against Northview on Saturday. “I think we’re ready,” Everman said. “That’s something we’ve been working towards all week. I’m looking forward to that game, I think it’ll be a good match and hopefully I get to see more possession with more shots at the end of it.”
North Putnam (3-7, 2-3 WIC) hosts Northview (1-7, 1-4 WIC) in a conference matchup on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. North Montgomery (3-5, 0-3 SAC) looks to keep the momentum going in a road contest against Sheridan (4-3, 1-0 HHC) on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
