NEW MARKET — Lightning across the northern sky interrupted Southmont and Frankfort in girls’ soccer on Tuesday night, but it didn’t matter as the Mounties held a 2-0 lead when the game was called due to incoming inclement weather with 17 minutes to play.
Hanna Nichols and Lillie Odum pushed Southmont to a 2-0 advantage at the half with a pair of goals in the first 40 minutes.
Nichols started the scoring with a goal 10 minutes into the game, before Odum took a long goal kick from goal-keeper Belle Miller and converted it into a goal midway through the first half. The junior leads the Mounties with five goals on the season.
“They do a great job of working hard for us and sprinting up there and putting us a in a good position to score,” Southmont coach Phil Keller said about the duo. “Every team needs somebody to work hard and to score in games and they’ve been big for us this season.”
The win moves the Mounties to 4-2-1 on the season and 2-2 in the Sagamore Conference. Southmont has scored 12 goals in seven games, An improvement from a season ago when they scored seven goals through seven games, including a 4-3 overtime loss to Frankfort they avenged on Tuesday.
“I think overall we’ve done a nice job offensively,” Keller said. “At times we can get too direct and too zoned in at playing high-intensity offense. We just need to make a couple adjustments the next couple weeks and try to possess the ball and pass more and maintain possession other than just kick and run.
Southmont, who is ranked No. 17 in the latest Class A poll and the four-time defending sectional champions, is off to its best start since they began the 2017 season 7-2-1 — and the best start in three seasons under Keller.
“Honestly I think our team this season is the best all-around team that I’ve coached,” Keller said. “We’ve got a lot of great talent at a lot of different positions. We may not have the best players I’ve coached, but we have the best teammates. And that really benefits us. They work hard and have each others’ back. That’s difficult to do and rare when you have 20 girls. We want to utilize our excellent teamwork and already great talent and combine the two and be able to achieve some great things at the end of the season.”
Southmont’s two losses are in Sagamore Conference play — a 4-1 loss to Lebanon and 3-2 heart-break defeat at Danville last week.
But the Mounties will not back down this season. They want to be the best and prove they belong.
“I’ve made it my mission and the girls have taken it on as well that we won’t be the team any longer that others teams look at and have an easy win,” Keller said. “We will no longer back down, no longer give up easily, and we are going to fight until the very last second. That’s one thing we probably do best is play hard the entire game. We are not going to be a weak-minded team. Not give up easy and always work hard.”
Southmont is at Greencastle on Thursday and at North Montgomery on Saturday.
