Aces Soccer Report From Coach Ed Berberich:
The MCHS soccer Aces hosted Olney Thursday night, winning 2-1. Beau Stipp gave the Aces the lead, scoring in the 23rd minute on an assist from Rayce Loudermilk. Olney answered 5 minutes later, drawing even with 12 minutes left in the 1st half. Ethan Belt scored what would end up being the deciding goal 6 minutes in to the 2nd half, giving the Aces the 2-1 lead, on an assist from Jarrett West. For the match, the Aces took 16 shots, 9 on frame, created 8 additional scoring chances, had 25 interceptions & 1 ball recovery. Tye Kanipe had 5 saves in goal. The Tigers took 10 shots, 5 on frame.
We were a little up & down in this one. We started out flat, picked it up a bit through the mid to late section of the 1st half, and then played very aggressively at the start of the 2nd. Olney came out strong &, outside of a couple dangerous counter attacks from us, controlled the game well for the first 15-20 minutes. We started to show a little more at that point and had some momentum going in to halftime. The guys built on that in the 2nd half, they really picked it up & came out playing some confident & aggressive soccer. We worked harder to pressure the ball quicker defensively & to jump on any passes that we could. Offensively, we moved better off the ball which helped us in possession & led to more consistent attacking soccer from us. We got 12 of our 16 shots & 3 of our 8 chances created during just the first 25 minutes of the 2nd half. That's the team we want to see out there, & that we know we can be, it just takes the commitment & confidence to come out & do it. We've got a tough stretch coming up with 3 conference games in 4 days, & overall 5 games in just 7 days, so we're hoping our 2nd half play carries over because we're going to be tested with such a busy week.
The Aces now stand at 7 - 3 (0 - 3) on the season. They start next week off with back-to-back home conference matches, hosting Boonville on Monday 9/24 at 5:30 pm, followed by Vincennes Lincoln the following night, Tuesday 9/25, at 5 pm.
