From Coach Ed Berberich:

The MCHS Soccer Aces hosted 2 Big 8 opponents to start the week, beating Boonville 2-1 in OT on Monday, then getting the win against Vincennes Lincoln 3-1 on Tuesday. 

Against Boonville, the Aces fell behind 0-1 in the 24th minute, and were trailing in the match until Rayce Loudermilk scored with 12 minutes remaining to tie it up & send it to overtime. The score remained tied after the first OT period and well into the 2nd when, with 30 seconds left in OT, Loudermilk scored again to give the Aces their first Big 8 victory on the year. The Aces took 26 shots in the match with 16 on frame, created 6 additional scoring chances, had 9 interceptions and 4 ball recoveries. Tye Kanipe had 6 saves in goal. Boonville took 7 shots in the match, 6 on frame. 

The Aces again fell behind the next night against Lincoln, with the Alices scoring the first goal of the match in the 27th minute and taking the 1 goal lead into the half. The Aces tied it up 9 minutes into the 2nd half when Beau Stipp scored on an assist from Jarrett West. Britton Heinrich then gave the Aces the lead 6 minutes later on an assist from Kaleb Johnson, and Adam Stoneberger added the insurance goal with 10 minutes remaining to put the game away. The Aces took 19 shots with 14 on frame, created 7 additional scoring chances, & had 9 interceptions. Kanipe had 1 save in goal. The Alices took 2 shots in the match, both on frame.

We've come out flat to start the last 3 games, and that's making things much harder on us than they should be. We feel like we could have, and should have, jumped out on the last 3 teams but instead the slow starts have made each game tougher than it needed to be. We've looked uninspired in the warm-ups and that's carried over into the matches. Even though we've eked out some wins, it's been a rather disappointing stretch because we know we can be much better than we've looked of late. We've just started a pretty challenging section of the schedule with 5 games in 7 days, 3 of those being Big 8 matches, so we really need to pick up our effort & preparation level for these upcoming games. If we can start cranking up our intensity & focus in the warm-ups & at the beginning of our matches, we can easily start looking like the team we feel we have on hand here & finish this last stretch of the regular season on a strong note, win or lose. Heading in to the playoffs, I'd say that's our biggest goal.

The wins put the Aces' record for the year at 9 - 3 (2 - 3). Their busy week continues with a road match against Princeton on Thursday, who stand at 8 - 5 - 1 (2 - 3) on the season. At one point ranked 18th in Indiana 2A, the Tigers currently sit at 27th.