MTZ girls soccer goes 2-1 last week

By BLAKE FAITH
Staff Writer

The Mt. Zion girls soccer team went 2-1 last week picking up wins against Warrensburg-Latham and Taylorville. Maddie Kendall led the Braves in scoring last week with four goals throughout the three-game span.

Against Warrensburg-Latham, the Cardinals out possessed the Braves the majority of the first-half. The Braves capitalized on one of their only first-half scoring opportunities in the 35th minute. Isabelle Homles found an open Kendall in the middle of the field.Kendall netted the goal into the right-corner of the goal to give the Braves a 1-0 lead.

“Well it was a good gut it out win,” Head coach Jonathan Moore said. “We were gritty, we played hard, we played together and I thought it’s just good overall solid win for us.”

With the absence of regular starting goalkeeper Denver Anderson, Macie Fleming stepped into the goalkeeper position for the first time this season. Fleming grabbed a save from the left-top corner when Brenna Dutcher shot the ball. In the 32nd minute, Dutcher fired another shot that Fleming saved to preserve the 1-0 lead. Fleming finished with 10 saves and the shutout for the Braves.

“They did a great job and when you’re asking somebody to step in on your first game midway through the season, into the net, and I know she was nervous, but she gave us a lot back there,” Coach Moore said. She made some big saves and just did a great job. Same thing with Katie

Olliger stepping into Macie’s spot. When somebody’s gone we got to make a couple adjustments and fill on some new roles. And both Katie and Macie stepped into that role nicely. Sydney Howerton moved over that defensive mid and she did a good job in the middle of the field along with Reese Donahue.”

Against Taylorville, the Braves started their offense in the 6th minute when Kendall made a pass down the middle to Wrigley Donahue who netted the first of nine goals for the Braves. Ten minutes later Katie Olliger found Kendall who dribbled the ball past the goalkeeper and netted her first of three goals of the night.

Oliger netted the third goal of the night for the Braves when she netted a goal right inside the 30-yard line in the 17th minute. Donahue then scored her second goal of the night off a miscue inside the 18-yard line.

Mackenzie Krieger got on the scoreboard when she scooped up a goalkeeper miscue and shot it into the back of the net. Kendall scored two more goals for a hat trick and Fleming and Sydney Howerton added a goal each to give the Braves a 9-0 win.

Against Mahomet-Seymour the Braves lost 8-0. The Braves improve to 9-2 overall and will face Charleston and Lincoln this week in Apollo Conference action.

“Well what I’d like to see is kind of what we did with Pana,” Coach Moore said. “We saw Pana in the St. Teresa tournament and played them nil nil and beat them in penalty shots. And then we saw them again and handled them and hopefully we can do the same thing in Charleston because that shows us that in the last three weeks and that we’ve gotten better. So hopefully it will and Charleston is always a good rival for us in the conference and always gives us a good game.”