From Coach Ed Berberich:
The MCHS Lady Aces soccer team recently won 2 matches on the road. They first traveled to Olney, coming away with a hard-fought 4-3 victory, then headed to Centralia to take on the Lady Orphans, winning that match 7-0.
Against Olney, the Lady Aces took a quick lead when Maya Smith scored in the 1st minute on an assist from Rylie Webb. The Lady Tigers tied the game in the 12th minute, & the 1st half ended with the 1-1 score. The Lady Aces retook the lead 9 minutes into the 2nd half on a goal by Webb, but then Olney scored 2 goals in the next 10 minutes to take a 3-2 lead with 20 minutes remaining. Webb drew the Lady Aces even with her 2nd goal in the 62nd minute & then got a hat trick, & the game-winning goal, in the 75th minute, for the final 4-3 score. Katelyn Kline played in goal for the entire game, getting 7 saves.
Olney did a good job of possessing the ball & moving it around the field, forcing us to rely on counter-attacks for scoring opportunities. I was proud of how the girls kept fighting against a team that honestly played better than us. In the past, this is the type of game where we probably would've come up a little short in the end, but we fought through it & with some big individual plays were able to pull out the win.
At Centralia, the Lady Aces dominated from the start, with Webb scoring in the 4th minute on an assist from Smith, with a key pass from Kinze Cusick. Smith would score 2 quick goals, in the 12th & 16th minutes, the 1st one on an assist from Webb with a key pass from Emma Adams, & the 2nd on another assist from Webb. Webb added a goal in the 25th minute on an assist from Piper Belt, & Flynn Guard finished the 1st half scoring with a goal in the 39th minute on an assist from Kinze Cusick, giving the Lady Aces a 5-0 halftime lead. The strong play continued in the 2nd half, with Webb & Smith both scoring goals for a hat trick for each. Webb's goal came on an assist from Guard & Smith's came on an assist from Kinze Cusick. The Lady Aces took 18 shots in the match, 11 on frame, & created 6 additional scoring chances. The Lady Orphans took 3 shots on goal. Kline & Rilee Riggs combined in goal for the shutout, with Kline getting 2 saves & Riggs 1.
The ladies dominated every aspect of this one, creating a lot of shots & only giving up 3. The defense did a good job of keeping the ball in front of them & cleaning up the few instances where the ball did get behind them. McKenna Golden has been doing a great job at center back holding the defense together as our newer players are getting up to speed, & Makayla Beesley has been huge in protecting the front of them at defensive center mid. About the newer players, we can see them starting to get more comfortable out there & they're seeming to gain confidence game by game. They did a good job of beginning to pass out of trouble & starting the attack going the other way, rather than just kicking the ball, and that comes with experience. On offense, it's no secret who's been carrying the load for us, but now we're starting to see the new players get more involved as well. We had several scoring opportunities from girls who haven't been in those situations much before, & we just missed seeing a few 1st-time goals from some of them. We're also starting to see better passing from them as well, as evidenced by some of the assists, key passes & chances created from some of the less experienced players tonight. As they improve, it's only going to help the more experienced players by taking some of the work off of them.
The wins bring the Lady Aces record to 3-1 (1-0) on the season. They next travel to Salem to take on the Lady Wildcats on 5/19.