Both the Seymour boys and girls soccer teams hosted Oldenburg Academy on Saturday morning, but the teams finished with oppo- site results.
The Seymour boys soccer team was able to hold on to a 2-1 lead, with nearly 10 minutes left in the game, to defeat the Twisters.
From the start, the Owls looked to control the tempo of the game with combination passing.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
At 32:35 in the first half, Owls senior Kyle Jones lifted a free kick from 45 yards from the right side of the field to the upper left corner to give his team a 1-0 advantage.
“From that distance, it’s typically a serve,” Owls assistant coach Greg Jones said. “With a little wind at his back, it was a great shot. It was a good start for us.
“I thought the kids did a real nice job of combination play,” Jones said.
“We had a lot of good play from our outside backs moving the ball forward, giving us opportunities to score goals.”
The Owls stayed aggressive at the start of the second half, taking four shots within the first two minutes.
With 36:43 on the clock, senior Owls right back Matthew Pyle slammed a cross from the right side into the box, and a Twisters defender deflected the ball in for an own goal.
“I thought the first part of the second half we came out really strong,” Jones said. “We did get the own goal, but it was because (Matthew Pyle) hit that cross inside the box. We grinded it out from there. They fought hard and held on. We will take goals any way we can take them.”
Tensions were high from then on as the Twisters’ Aaron Huber and the Owls’ Ethan Greene were both issued yellow cards on separate occasions.
Throughout the game, there were multiple collisions that went without whistles.
“I think our guys can play different types of games, whether it’s physical or a game that they call a lot of fouls in it,” Jones said.
“The kids worked really hard over the summer in the weight room, and they can play however they need to for wins.”
The Twisters’ Stuart Lamping notched his team’s lone goal on the game near the 11-minute mark after squaring a shot in a sea of bodies off a corner kick.
While the Twisters fired off multiple shots in the final minutes, they couldn’t muster a score.
The Owls out-shot the Twisters 15-9 in the game.
In goal, the Owls’ Elliott Clark recorded three saves.
With the win, the Owls (7-3, 1-2 Hoosier Hills Conference) are riding a three-game winning streak heading into Tuesday’s HHC matchup at Floyd Central.
Twisters beat girls
In a back-and-forth affair, the Twisters girls squad bested the Owls 3-2 in the early game at C.B. Hess Memorial Field.The Owls struck first when Maria Cerda finished shot off a Kayla Griffin assist in the opening around 14 minutes into play.At 21:49, the Twisters answered when Haleigh Reed slid a shot past Owls goalkeeper Rachel Collett on a counter-attack.
With 11:25 left before halftime, the Twisters’ Elizabeth Schulte capitalized on a penalty kick to give her team the 2-1 lead.
Unwavering, the Owls’ Marie Lenart was able to score off a lead pass from Andrea Ferrer with 32:38 left to tie the game at 2-2 following intermission.
Reed scored her second goal of the game with a floater from 18 yards at the 31:55 mark.
“There were little lapses in our intensity after we scored,” Owls coach Greg Musser said. “Five minutes after we scored the first goal, they had a goal. Two minutes after our second goal, they scored. It’s something to learn from. We need to have an attacking mindset after scoring.”
Neither team found the back of the net the rest of the way.
Collett finished with 14 saves in goal and the Twisters outshot the Owls 17-13.
Musser said his team is getting better at putting together strings of passes in the midfield.
“We’ve been doing a great job possessing the ball in the middle,” Musser said. “They’re doing what we ask, we’ve been trying to become a possession team. We’re seeing that more and more in every game.”
With their tallies on the day, Lenart has amassed 10 goals on the season and Cerda has notched six scores.
“Their speed and aggressiveness gets them some goals by default,” Musser said. “We’re finally getting the ball into the midfield, and it’s not just a one-man effort. Now we’re getting the ball slotted in to them, and it’s nice to see. They’re a tough duo to handle.”
Following the loss, the Owls move to 3-5-1 with Floyd Central coming to town Tuesday.
“We kind of had a tough week with games on Tuesday and Thursday, and we bounced back hard on Thursday but unfortunately didn’t come up on the winning end,” Musser said. “I thought the girls came out against a very strong opponent and controlled a majority of the game.
“We were winning a majority of the 50-50 balls in the middle which was nice. We had some unlucky bounces and an unlucky (penalty kick). It’s just the way of the game.”