Big second half boosts Owls in HHC soccer game; Seymour girls win, Trinity ties

At halftime of Thursday night’s Seymour-Bedford North Lawrence boys soccer match, the Owls coaches told the home team to step its play up a notch.

At that point, the Owls and Stars were knotted at 0.

Devon Moore scored the first of his two goals on a penalty kick at 31:48 that sparked the Owls to a 4-0 Hoosier Hills Conference win on Senior Night.

Seymour’s seniors, Clayton Abbott, Nathan Pyle, Aaron Brown, Logan Goins, Blake Stein, Jason Kincer, Reid Martin, Blake Dye, Moore and manager Chelsea Richards, along with their parents, were introduced between games.

Owls head coach Wil Smith said the seniors have meant a lot to the program.

“This team has been a special team all year,” he said. “They’ve played together for many years. They are always a pleasure to watch play and to coach. Things just go a lot smoother when you know what you are doing. We’ve been blessed with this group, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

The match became rough in the second half with two Seymour players and one Bedford player receiving yellow cards, and three of Seymour’s goals came on penalty kicks.

“The field was very soggy,” Smith said. “When the field is like this, you have to work so hard to judge the ball to make your kicks. They couldn’t get their legs going. At halftime, we had a talk and said ‘look boys, this is a conference game and you’ve got to get it done no matter what the conditions are.’
“The second half, we really picked up the intensity. There were three earned penalty kicks. There were three heavy trips. Those were not lucky. We were playing a lot quicker than they were. It was a physical game. The fouls were hard.”

Brown attempted a penalty kick at 28:08 of the second half. The ball hit the right post and bounced back toward the players, and Moore charged in and easily kicked the ball past the BNL goalie for a 2-0 score.

“You run in there just to be safe, just in case something like that happens,” Moore said. “I was lucky enough that it came right to me. We came in knowing it was going to be a physical game. I think the field conditions played a big factor in it. Most games are going to be physical, and with the conditions, we were expecting that. There was a lot of mud.”

Kincer found the back of the net at 22:43, and Daniel Koester closed the scoring with a penalty kick at 13:58.

The Owls attempted 15 shots to three for the Stars.

Smith said Seymour goalie Austin Edington made a nice play for his only save of the night with 10 minutes left in the first half.

This was Seymour’s sixth shutout of the season. The Owls are 5-1 in the HHC and 9-4 for the season.

Seymour will play host to Jennings County on Monday night in a match that was rained out Sept. 22. Seymour is tied with Columbus East for first in the HHC.

Seymour girls 3, Columbus East 0

COLUMBUS — The Seymour girls soccer team shut out Columbus East 3-0 on Thursday in a Hoosier Hills Conference game.

Allison Reed scored six and a half minutes into the first half and Heather Jones scored 28 minutes in. In the second half, with seven minutes remaining in the game, Reed scored her second goal.

Owls coach Jessica Floyd praised the efforts of Rachel Krieger, who had 12 goal saves, and Bridgette Jones, Kaitlyn Frische, Megan Boger and Brooke Werskey on defense.

“This was a big conference win for the Lady Owls,” Floyd said. “The defense played a great game. They were able to keep Columbus East scoreless throughout the entire game. I was very proud of my veteran defense.”

The Lady Owls (9-2-3 overall, 4-1-2 in HHC) will play host to Providence on Saturday.

Trinity Lutheran 1, Christian Academy 1

Christian Academy scored six minutes into the game, and Trinity’s Nathan Nichols scored on a header on a corner kick by Cameron Hensley with 13 minutes left in the first half.

After 80 minutes, the score was 1-1.

Cougars coach Dan Sievert said the second half had mixed opportunities, but the Warriors had the upper hand.

“Junior goalie Chad VanLiew made some unbelievable saves, and the defense, led by junior Zach Flinn at sweeper, complemented his saves,” Sievert said. VanLiew had 17 saves in the game. “The quality of chances were clearly in Christian Academy’s favor, but his positioning and reaction time turned a possible 4 or 5-1 game into a tie.”

Despite injuries and illness, Sievert said there was “a total team effort that we had not seen before.”

The Cougars (8-3-3) will travel to Greenwood Christian Academy on Monday.

Box scores

Boys

At Seymour

Bedford 0 0--0

Seymour 0 4--4 
Seymour goals: Devon Moore 2, Jason Kincer, Daniel Koester
Shots: Seymour 15, Bedford North Lawrence 3; goal save: Austin Edington (S) 1
Junior varsity
Seymour 3, Bedford 0
Seymour goals: Braden Sciarra 3

Girls
At Columbus
Seymour          2 1—3
Columbus East 0 0—0
Seymour goals: Allison Reed 2, Heather Jones
Shots: Seymour 13; goal saves: Rachel Krieger (S) 12
Junior varsity
Seymour           0 0—0
Columbus East 0 2—2
Shots: Seymour 15; goal saves: Breanna Tidd (S) 7

Co-ed
At Seymour
Christian Academy 1 0—1
Trinity Lutheran     1 0—1
Trinity Lutheran goal: Nathan Nichols; assist: Cameron Hensley
Shots: Trinity Lutheran 12; goal saves: Chad VanLiew (TL) 17