Southmont sophomore Hanna Nichols contributed an assist in the Mountie's 3-0 win over Cascade on Monday.
Southmont's Beckett Jett and his teammates had plenty of scoring opportunities, but were unable to find the back of the net in a 1-0 loss to Cascade on Monday.
NEW MARKET — A pair of Lexie Odum goals propelled Southmont past Cascade on Monday evening in girl’s soccer.
In a potential sectional matchup, Odum found the back of the net just four minutes into the game, and the Mounties controlled the pace the rest of the way.
Odum broke free and scored her second goal early in the second half, before Lillie Odum, Lexie’s younger sister, made it 3-0 with her first career goal in the 62nd minute.
“At times it is a good thing, and at times it’s a bad thing, because they know each other’s buttons to push,” Southmont coach Phil Keller said about the duo. “Overall they’re doing a really good job of playing together, and it’s something with Lexie the senior and Lillie the freshman, so she is definitely helping Lillie, and Lexie is helping the other young forwards.”
Both Hanna Nichols and Jordan Stanley chipped in assists.
With the win, Southmont improves to 5-4-1 overall, and Keller is seeing his team continue to improve as the state tournament looms just two weeks away. The Mounties will be looking to win a sectional title for a third straight season.
“I think as a team we are doing really well,” he said. “We still have some stuff we can improve, but overall we are playing really well. I’ve seen vast improvement from the beginning of the season to now. And I think it’s all on the girls because they come to practice wanting to learn.”
Southmont will travel to Crawfordsville tonight for a 5:30 p.m. tilt with the Athenians, trying to secure a county title after defeating North Montgomery in a shootout earlier this season.
“I’ve been trying to keep them focused that sectional and county champs is something that we’ve done before, so let’s do a little more, but nonetheless it’s still really important to them and something we are really excited about,” Keller said. “And something we’ve got to come in and we have to go out and get the job done tomorrow.”
Cascade falls to 3-10 and hosts Northview on Wednesday.
Cadets 1, Mounties 0
Southmont boy’s soccer coach Brandon Rash saw his team improve offensively on Monday night, despite a 1-0 setback to Cascade.
The Cadets possessed the ball for much of the first half and Blake Stack found the back of the net 26 minutes in to put Cascade ahead 1-0, and that was the deciding goal.
“From the beginning we usually start out more defensively, and then when you get down to a fairly even team you have to go all out on offense, and we got our shots off, it just didn’t go our way,” Rash said.
Southmont was unable to force a shot on goal until the 24th minute mark in the first half, but quickly rebounded from the slow start offensively. The goals just weren’t meant to be.
“We had several guys taking shots,” Rash said. “They even said in the huddle that we held the ball a lot and made some passes and got those shots. It’s something we’ve talked about for a long time and just kind of clicked tonight.”
Cascade improves to 4-8 on the season, while Southmont falls to 1-9-1. Over the last few games Rash feels like he has seen an improvement in aggressiveness as the quality of opponent has elevated.
“That’s something we talked about from the beginning,” he said. “There’s some games we could have won if we would have just been a little more physical, I think. And I think the last few games we’ve played better teams, and them being more physical has brought it out in our guys.”
Southmont hosts Bethesda Christian on Saturday at 7 p.m.
