NEW MARKET – It was senior night at Southmont as both the boys and girls soccer teams hosted the Cascade Cadets. In the first game of the evening, the girls picked up a 1-0 shutout win over the team they defeated in last year’s sectional championship thriller. The boys in the night cap were defeated 2-0.
Stanley’s goal enough for Mountie win
Jordan Stanley, one of five seniors for the Southmont girls, scored 11 minutes into the first half and that’s all the Mounties (7-3-1, 3-3 SAC) needed. In a potential sectional preview Southmont’s defense held strong the entire game. The Cadets sent a barrage of shots on goal in the final minutes of the first half but Senior goalkeeper Belle Miller and the rest of the defense never wavered.
“There’s nothing more you can ask for than to get a shutout win,” Southmont coach Phil Keller said. “Our defense did a nice job the entire night. I still think it was an average game for us and that we could’ve played a little better. With the potential of seeing them again in the sectional, we didn’t want to show everything to them. Nonetheless it was still good to come out and get a win.”
Along with Stanley and Miller, fellow seniors Hanna Nichols, Madison Chadwick, and Justine Troutman were all honored after the game. Keller who has seen these seniors be a crucial part of four consecutive sectional championship teams, took some time to talk about what they’ve meant to the program.
“All five of them have done a great job for us and have provided excellent leadership,” he said. “We’re very thankful that they’ve all been a part of our program and we’ll be missing a big part of our team next year. With that being said we’ve still got them for a few games this season, and while we have them, we’re going to take advantage of that and have some great success.”
The Mounties will be back in action this evening as they make the short drive to the Athenian complex to take on county rival Crawfordsville. A win for Southmont would secure the county championship.
“We’re going to come out and play hard and be ready to go,” Keller said of the county matchup. “We’ll do what we can to win the game and hope for the best.”
The game will be broadcast on the radio on WIMC Thunder 103.9 with a scheduled start time of 5:30.
Cadets blank Mounties
The Southmont boys had their chances on offense to be prevented from being shutout, however the ball just didn’t bounce the Mounties way in the 2-0 loss.
The Cadets got on the board early in the game and then added a goal with 15 seconds remaining in the first half and that’s all the scoring that would take place. Southmont’s defense was able to pitch a second half shutout and keep them in the game.
“The little things matter a lot,” Southmont coach Stephanie Kennedy said. “We’ve been working on fine tuning things on the offensive end and there’s glimpses where it looks like we’ve turned a corner but we can’t put a complete game together as of yet.”
Even though the offensive struggles continue, Kennedy is pleased with how her team continued to show fight and never give up.
“We’re starting to shoot more and be more aggressive on that side of the ball so that’s a positive moving forward,” she said. “But now we have to work on making the correct shot. Some guys want to be the hero out there and we have to start connecting more passes. We know they can do it, we’ve seen it before and it’s now where we have to make them they can do it too.”
Along with the senior girls soccer players who were honored, the boy’s also celebrated and honored their seven seniors. Silas Adams, Kristian Prado, Christian Worth, Taishi Greiner, Logan Phillips, Ryan Reimondo, and Justin Bachmann make up a group who has helped Kennedy tremendously in her first two seasons.
“It’s been great to have a big class like this,” she said. “They are all tremendous role models on and off the field and are doing the right things as well as trying to make sure our younger guys are doing the right things also. We’re definitely going to miss them next year.”
Southmont (1-6-1, 1-3 SAC) will be back at home on Saturday as they host South Vermillion.
