The Chillicothe Lady Cavaliers varsity soccer team got six goals from junior Peyten Davis and a hat trick (3 goals) from Lexi Brown which propelled them to an 11-3 S.C.O.L. victory over McClain in Greenfield Tuesday night.
The Lady Tigers kept things close in the first half and trailed by just three goals 5-2 at the intermission.
Taylor Polley scored McClain’s first goal of the opening half on an unbelievable corner-kick at the 21:05 mark followed by a Kelli Uhrig goal with 2:45 left in the first period.
In the second half it was all Lady Cavaliers as they out-scored McClain 6-1 and coasted to the 11-3 S.C.O.L. victory and remained unbeaten at 3-0 on the season.
Polley netted the Lady Tigers only goal of the second half at the 11:42 mark as she knifed through several Chillicothe defenders to score.
“Chillicothe is probably one of the two best teams in the league and I think we held our own for most of the game,” said McClain Coach Shawn Peterman “I thought we had several nice little spurts where our girls executed our game plan when our circulation and passing of the ball were excellent, then we seemed to fall apart and Chillicothe would capitalize on our mistakes.”
“It was really hot today and I think fatigue might have got to us too, especially in the second half.”
McClain’s freshman goal-keeper Karissa Nebbergal was outstanding at the net where she made several fingertip deflections and some incredible diving stops throughout the contest which prevented the score from being more lop-sided than it was.
“Hats off to our keeper, she had 81 stops before tonight and after this game I’m sure it’s going to be over 100 now,” continued Peterman “So that identifies one of our main problems which is we need to have our defense recover better and take some of the load off of her at the net.”
The Lady Tigers travel to Miami Trace Thursday, September 3rd then return home Thursday, September 10 to play Washington.
In the boys game, the Tigers soccer team suffered a hard fought 3-2 loss to Chillicothe who are the defending and back to back undefeated S.C.O.L. champions.
McClain played exceptionally well in the opening half in which they led 2-1 at the break. Senior Cody Hardesty scored both first period goals for the Tigers the second one coming from an unbelievable assist on a punt from goal keeper Camden Yates.
But the upset was not to be as the Cavaliers came out a little more aggressively and with much more intensity and out-scored McClain 2-0 in the second half to earn the exciting come from behind victory.
Chillicothe’s Will Krieger got inside for a rebounded goal to tie the game 2-2 at the 37:00 mark and senior Chris Cunningham scored the eventual game-winner with 18:29 left in regulation.
Despite the tough loss McClain head coach Jon Chamblin was still impressed with his team’s over-all performance against the defending league champs.
“I couldn’t have asked anymore out of our kids in that first half,” said Chamblin “They played really hard and I’m very proud of them. We just seemed to lose our intensity in the second half.”
“Chillicothe is a very physical and aggressive team that hasn’t lost a game in the S.C.O.L. over the last two season so to lose 3-2 tonight is still a moral victory and win for our program.”
“Our guys know now they can play with anyone in the league.
Sophomore goal-keeper Camden Yates was outstanding the whole game with countless goal-saving stops especially in the second period.
“Camden (Yates) played lights out tonight and showed the fire and intensity that we’ve been looking for from him,” Chamblin said “I think we really surprised Chillicothe tonight, they thought they would come in here and get an easy win but they soon found out they were in a dog fight.”
Chillicothe improves to 3-0 on the season while McClain drops to 2-2 over-all (1-2) in the S.C.O.L.
The Tigers travel to Miami Trace Thursday, September 3rd before returning home Thursday, September 10th to host Washington.
