DANVILLE — Southmont boys soccer saw its season come to an end on Monday night in the Class 2A Sectional 25 Tournament against host Danville. The Mounties fell by a final of 5-0 and it was two spurts by the Warrior offense that doomed the Mounties upset bid. The first was three goals in a matter of three minutes and 20 seconds. Lucas Waldon got the Warriors on the board with a scrum at the net between what seemed liked five different players for each team. The ball found the foot of Walden and he sent it through. Eli Tricker scored the next two goals and would make it a hat trick at the 59-minute mark of the second half. Just two minutes later Ian Tricker put the final goal through as the running clock went into effect.
“Defensive breakdowns have led to our opponents scoring all season long and we just can’t seem to stop the bleeding right there when we need to,” Southmont coach Steph Kennedy said. “It doesn’t help that we most of time just weren’t able to respond to those runs. We did some nice things with connecting passes and that’s something we’ve worked on all season. These guys have so much potential to be able to stay in games with difficult opponents. We know its in there.”
Southmont ends the season with an overall record of 2-13-1. According to Kennedy that record isn’t even close to indicative of how her team has played this season. South has been in close games, but just hasn’t been able to break through when they need it most.
“It doesn’t show who these guys really are as players or even as a collective team,” Kennedy said. “Their personalities both on and off the field make them fantastic guys to coach. I was telling them afterwards in the huddle how proud I am to be their coach because they’ve shown what they can do against bigger teams,”
The seasons end also sees the careers of the three seniors in Logan Link, Josh Troutman, and Jayden Snapp all come to an end. All three were key for the Mountie defense and Kennedy notes how they’re for sure going to be missed by the rest of the team next season.
“I’ve had the pleasure of coaching Josh and Logan ever since they were freshman since they were my first group that I’ve had for all four years,” she said. “We’re going to certainly miss all three of them next year. I’m really proud of Snapp coming out this year for his first year of soccer. It’s a group that’s special for sure.”
Southmont does return a bulk of its players including players like Hunter Gray (leading goal scorer), Tyler Petroski, Lucas Oppy, and goalie Paul Hazlett just to name a few who will all be seniors next season. Throw in a large freshman class from this past year and South will once again have the talent to have the breakthrough season they’ve been in search of.
“We had three to four freshman starting and that’s a big leap to take coming up from junior high,” Kennedy said. “Having them learn and gain that experience along with our junior group that has loads of talent, that’s a group that’s been playing together for many years and hopefully some exciting things can happen.”
Danville advances to take on Western Boone in Wednesday’s first semi-final.
