The Lady Cadets soccer team (5-1, 3-1 ICC) traveled to Greencastle to play one of their most anticipated games of the season. The last three regular season soccer games between the Lady Cadets and Lady Tigers have ended in ties (2-2, 2-2, and 1-1) and the Sectional championship last year between these two schools was an intense 1-0 victory for the Cadets. Both schools are recognized as Top 20 teams in the recent 1A state rankings (Cascade #12, Greencastle #13) and both teams are having great starts to the 2023 season (Cascade is 5-1, Greencastle is 7-0). These two teams are expected to meet one more time this season when the IHSAA tournament starts in about a month. For the Cadets, the Greencastle game signals the teams transition into a series of very competitive rivalry games that will end with the season ending conference match-up with Speedway. A coaching transition and some amazingly talented teams has helped Cascade to rebuild some success in the Girls Soccer program and to fire up intense rivalries. The most recent games between Cascade and Greencastle are the best example of this recent era of Cascade Girls Soccer. The last four games between Cascade and Greencastle have been exciting games to be a part of with Cascade taking a one game lead in the matchup (1-0-3) when they won the Sectional championship last season over Greencastle 1-0. The game on Saturday morning could have been viewed as a practice game for what hopefully would be another Sectional championship rematch but the game was much more important for Greencastle. In the opening minutes of the game, the Lady Tiger Cubs came out displaying all the talent and skills that had helped them win every game so far this season. Excellent passing, good movement of each player, and purposefully targeting their best players in the attacking end kept the Cadets on their heels for most of the first half. For the first half, the stats breakdown showed that the Lady Tiger Cubs made 50 passing attempts in the attacking third of the field and they kept the soccer ball in their attacking half of the field for most of the 40:00. But despite the ball control domination, the Cadets kept the Tiger Cubs out of good rhythm in their preferred shooting positions. The Tiger Cubs only took three shots on target toward the Cadets goal but one of those shots did sail perfectly over the Cadets goalie and into the back of the net. The Cadets were only able to create four short offensive runs in the first half and one of them did yield a free kick for Anna Burns to take. This beautiful shot did strike the top of the crossbar but the Cadets weren’t able to put the rebound back into the goal. Anna’s excellent shot that nearly went in was the only shot the Cadets would take in the whole first half and the first half ended 1-0 in favor of Greencastle. The second half looked much like the first half with total ball control for the Lady Tiger Cubs and the Cadets playing the best defense they could for most of the game. The first goal for the Tiger Cubs came in the first 15:00 of the game when the Cadets lost track of one of the better players on the Greencastle team. The second goal of the game for the Tiger Cubs came on a direct restart when the Cadets failed to clear the ball out of play. The Cadets goalie made a clean stop on the first rebound shot but the ball kept bouncing around until the third Greencastle player got a toe poke shot just past the Cascade goalie. The second goal for the Tiger Cubs at 22:05 gave them a 2-0 lead and a surge of confidence that the game was completely in their control. But after the Cadets made some positional changes, the Cadets started moving the ball more easily up the field. This new movement helped get the Cadets their only goal of the game at 9:22 remaining when Anna Burns and Creedance Chittenden played a quick give and go sequence that allowed Creedance to get off an excellent shot from 25 yards out that sailed over the outstretched hands of the Greencastle goalie. The brilliant goal was Creedance’s third of the season and the assist was Anna’s first of the season. With the game now scored 2-1, the Tiger Cubs tried to rebound quickly and add one more goal to put the game away but they also opened up the door for another great Cascade shot this time coming from Ava Allen. With about 6:00 remaining on the game clock, Anna Burns settled a Greencastle turnover and quickly looked up to find Ava Allen cutting into an open space. Anna’s pass to Ava was perfect and Ava was able to poke the ball over the diving Greencastle goalie for what appeared to be the game tying goal. However, the corresponding assistant referee waved the goal off by calling Ava offside on the play. Regardless of whether the game video shows that Ava was onside, the officials call deflated the Cadets rhythm and the team never recovered. The game looked like it was going to end in a 2-1 victory for Greencastle until the Cadets lost awareness of the Lady Tiger Cubs best offensive player who dribbled toward the middle of the field and struck a well positioned quick shot that crossed just under the crossbar of the Cascade goal. This late goal with 1:02 remaining was the third goal the Cadets have given up in the final 90 seconds of the game and pushed the Greencastle back up to two goals and ultimately the final score of 3-1. The Cadets had played hard and strategically well but they couldn’t match up with a talented Greencastle team. The 3-1 loss for the Cadets gives them their second loss of the season (5-2) and the Lady Tiger Cubs continue their strong start of the season with (8-0). These two teams will meet next season as conference rivals but this game changes neither team’s current conference standings. The Lady Cadets (5-2, 3-1 ICC) move onto preparing for their next rivalry game when they will travel to Danville on September 14th. The Lady Warriors are 6-2-1 on the season and have been a tough competitor for the Lady Cadets to overcome. The games have been tough losses (1-0, 2-0, and 2-1) over the past three seasons and the Lady Cadets know that they have to put forth their best efforts just to stay up with this 2A team. The game will start at 5:30 on the Danville High School multipurpose turf field. Game Summary Greencastle 1 - 2 3 Cascade 0 - 1 1 Goals/Assists: 2nd H 9:22 Creedance Chittenden (3), A: Anna Burns (1) Hudl Highlight Video https://www.hudl.com/video/2/497952/64fd402c0c54fe0abc58703a