LINDEN — The first Montgomery County matchup of the 2023-24 sports season took place on Monday at North Montgomery the Southmont Mounties and the host Chargers battled in boys soccer. The visiting Mounties held a commanding 5-0 lead and made it 6-0 early in the second half, but the home Chargers had a rally left in them. North rallied over three goals in a seven minute stretch to cut the Mountie lead in half to 6-3. But the rally was came too late as the Mounties were winners and picked a 6-3 county and Sagamore Conference win.
Hunter Gray led the way as he typically has for the Mountie offense as the speedster junior forward scored four of the six goals for Southmont (2-2-1, 1-1 SAC). Gray got things started at the seven minute mark of the game off an assist from Tyler Petroski. 12 minutes later Lucas Oppy was in a perfect spot to catch a Petroski shot that hit the left goal post and Oppy tapped it in to make it 2-0 Mounties. That began a six-minute stretch where South scored three goals with Gray scoring in the 21st minute and Petroski at the 25 minute mark.
“The win feels good because we needed to buid some positive momentum again,” Mountie coach Stephanie Kennedy said. “We were trying a new formation out there on offense so it was something new for all of our guys out there. The ball wasn’t flowing like it normally was so it was good for us to all see as a team what we needed to do to make that offense work. Hunter was his normal great self and I’m super proud of the way he’s played early on for us this year.”
Two more second half goals in the first seven minutes by Gray made the score 6-0 Mounties and then the Chargers responded. Sophomore Graham Dees got the Chargers on the board in the 59th minute which was followed up by a goal from fellow sophomore Nathan Woosley just three minutes later. Senior Edgar Biddle scored the final goal of the game at the 66-minute mark.
Coming into Monday, the Chargers (0-6 , 0-2 SAC) had scored just a single goal and that was in their opening game. Even though the game will go down a loss for the Chargers, coach Tristain Hall took plenty of positives away from the game.
“We wish the result would have been different, but I was very proud of our guys to put it together in the last 15-20 minutes of the game,” Hall said. “In that first half we had to make an adjustment because No. 12 (Gray) was making it difficult for us. Once we made those adjustments we got better as the time went on. The guys felt good and were positive still after the game because they know they put together some great soccer in the last half. Things were starting to click and now it’s just about putting it together for a full 80 minutes.”
The Mountie defense held it’s own once again as even though the Chargers weren’t scoring, they had plenty of shots to get on the board and the Mountie defense held serve, like it has for most of the season. Excluding giving up five goals to Covington over the weekend, the three goals by the Chargers are the most the Mounties have give up this season.
“Our defense is something that we’ve really been building up the last few seasons’,” Kennedy said. “We have good mix of vets and new guys back there and they’re all playing well right now. I have give those guys kudos for the way they’ve been able to rise to the occasion.”
Southmont will see a big test at home on Thursday when they welcome the North Putnam Cougars. The Chargers will be back on the road Wednesday when they travel to take on Rossville.
